RIFTVALLEY UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT-ASSIGNMENT ONE

NAME – HANA WOLDIE W/MARYAM

ID NO – 0147/18

DEPARTMENT/SECTION – BUMA 3RD BATCH

 1 Why Information Systems are so essential in business today? Describe
trends I global business environment that have made information system
so important.
Business Information System makes it simple to store operational data, revision histories,
communication records and documents. The storing of data manually involves a lot of time and
money. Business Information System can be effectively implemented to help communication
better between the employers and the employees.
Information systems also play an important role in helping every business company to maintain
and provide good service satisfaction for customers. Information systems make it possible for
companies to manage all their information, make better decisions, and improve their business
processes.
Information systems are a foundation for conducting business today. In many industries,
survival and the ability to achieve strategic business goals are difficult without extensive use of
information technology. Businesses today use information systems to achieve six major
objectives: operational excellence, new products, services, and business models,
customer/supplier intimacy, improved decision making, competitive advantage, and day to day.
The first trend of Information Systems in modern global business is the Structured Relational
Database (e.g. SQL). Forty years ago this was a new, experimental field. Today, every major
corporation and large company — and even Government — uses SQL to store and retrieve their
millions, and billions of transactional records annually (thus replacing filing cabinets, file clerks,
manual accounting ledgers and typing pools).
The second trend of Information Systems in modern global basis is the Unstructured Data of the
Internet. Billions of bits of information are added to the Internet every single day — more than
anybody could read in a lifetime. So — we need computer programs called “artificial
intelligence,” and “machine learning algorithms) to scan the entire Internet and the IoT
(Internet of Things) faily continually, to stay on top of all of the Big Data.

2 What is strategic Information System? What is the difference between

business level and firm level strategy?
Strategic information systems (SIS) are information systems that are developed in response to
corporate business initiative. They are intended to give competitive advantage to the
organization. Strategic information management (SIM) is a salient feature in the world of
information technology (IT).
Strategic Information Systems are special types of information system which support the
change of goal, operation, products, services or environmental relationships of organization.
Due to strategic information systems, a competitive edge over the other organizations is
gained. Computers play an important role in implementing strategic information system. Some
places where the system is used are health care, distribution of products, researching of
transport operations, e Governance system for policy management
The general distinction is that business strategy addresses how we should compete, while
corporate strategy is concerned with in which businesses we should compete. Specifically,
business strategy. Refers to the ways in which a firm plans to achieve its objectives within a
particular business.
• Business strategy focuses on competition in a single business, while corporate strategy
focuses on the overall strategy of firms diversified in more than one business.
• « Competition in an individual industry is the core level of strategy, because it is at this
level that industry profitability is determined and competitive advantage is either won or lost. »
• « Corporate strategy is concerned with the choice of what industries a company should
occupy and how it should enter them. From a competitive advantage standpoint, the central
question at the corporate level is how the competitive advantages of each business unit are
enhanced (rather than undermined) by other units in the corporation . »

3 You are a marketing manager of the well-known Bank I Ethiopia. Give an

example of data your department could use and create clear information
from that data you gave.
As a bank marketing manager, customer I a king and must to keep our customer. So customer
data is my choice when am marketing manager of the bank. Customer data or consumer data
refers to all personal, behavioral, and demographic data that is collected by marketing
companies and departments from their customer base. To some extent, data collection from
customers intrudes into customer privacy, the exact limits to the type and amount of data
collected need to be regulated. The data collected is processed in customer analytics. The data
collection is thus aimed at insights into customer behavior (buying decisions, etc.) and,
eventually, profit maximization by consolidation and expansion of the customer base. In the
internet age, a prominent method for collecting customer data is through explicit online
surveys, but also through concealed methods like measurement of click-through and
abandonment rates. Customer data is gathered for customer research, especially customer
satisfaction research and purportedly serves to increase overall customer satisfaction.

4 Define open and closed system. Give examples for each of closed and
open systems
An open system is one in which energy can be transferred between the system and its
surroundings. An open system is a system that has external interactions. Such interactions can
take the form of information, energy, or material transfers into or out of the system boundary,
depending on the discipline which defines the concept. An open system is also known as a flow
system. The stovetop system is open because heat can be lost into the air. A closed system is
one that cannot transfer energy to its surroundings. A closed system is a physical system that
does not allow transfer of matter in or out of the system, though, in different contexts, such as
physics, chemistry or engineering Biological organisms are open systems

5 Read Textbook Here page 53 Interactive Session : Technology UPS

COMPETES GLOBALLY WITH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

A. What are the inputs, processing, and outputs of UPS’s package tracking system?
The inputs of UPS include package information, customer signature, pickup, delivery, time-card
data, current location (while en route), and billing and customer clearance documentation
The outputs include pickup and delivery times, location while en route, and package recipient.
The outputs also include various reports, such as all packages for a specific account or a specific
driver or route, as well as summary reports for management.
The Processing of UPS are transmitted to a central computer and stored for retrieval. Data are
also reorganized so that they can be tracked by customer account, date, driver, and other
criteria such as the consolidation of orders for efficient final delivery of packages.
B. What technologies are used by UPS? How are these technologies related to UPS’s business
strategy?
The technologies used by UPS are DIAD, Barcode Scanner, Wireless Communication, ERP, Web
service and GPS tracking device.
These technologies are related to UPS’s business strategy because they improve efficiency and
make parcel service’s cheaper. UPS also uses Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD)
which can be accessed by wireless network. Drivers can know more detailed information (for
example, geographic location of entire fleet) from handheld PCs that captures customer
signatures automatically.
These technologies also help the strategy to increase flexibility in business. These technologies
help the business to integrate tracking, rating, address validation and other stuffs to be done
easily in a real time.
C. What strategic business objectives do UPS’s information systems address?
Increased service range to cater for the needs of great amount of customers.
Focuses on introducing efficiency in performance
-High level of customer service
-Lower cost

D . What would happen if UPS’s information systems were not available? If UPS’s information
system were not available then UPS Company wouldn’t be as efficient as it is now.
From the customer perspective, these technologies provide value because they help customers
complete their tasks more efficiently. This is because we know that the information system
solve is to keep the level of services high yet bring the costs and prices down to compete with
other competitors. If these systems were not available then UPS will not be able to compete
with others and it will not become the largest package delivery company as it is today.