Management Information System Assignment

Usama Hafeez

1. What kinds of applications are described here? What business functions do they support? How
do they improve operational efficiency and decision making?

Following case study, there are two companies utilize software applications to perform their
business functions, Sonic automotive (known as one of the largest automotive retailers in the
United States) and SKF (A Swedish global engineering company).

Sonic Automotive utilize an application called as SIMS (Sonic Inventory Management System) to
speed up and simplify the trade-in appraisals and pricing. Similarly, SKF utilize MOST, a mobile app
which enables their factory operators to monitor some of the factory production lines. These two
applications are generally developed to support collecting specific data for the company and to
communicate among the corporate offices and each other’s.

In addition to this, Virtual Lot App by Sonic Automotive and SHELF by SKF are two applications
which are utilized to help the customers and staff to access the company’s inventory and services
with their specification. Virtual lot gives support for the sales associate to quickly search for vehicles
held in inventory by providing immediate access to vehicle information, pricing, trade-in values,
interest rates, special promotions, financing, etc. SKF’s app MOST, enable the factory operators to
secure instant messaging, functioned to communicate with the managers and each other, provides
maintenance logs update, also the products track in real time.

Lastly, Service Pad app by Sonic Automotive which simplify the steps in repair and warranty work,
along with other apps such as the Data Collect, Virtual Reality and Seals by SKF provides support for
the company’s staff member check, audit, data collection and data retrieve with certain
specification.

All the above-explained applications are being utilized to support various business functions such as
data collection and retrieve, including communicating the company’s data information. All of these
operations plays significant roles to increase the efficiency and productivity of the companies
because company staffs or whoever in charge for a particular task, will have better access to fulfill
the customer’s requests faster in a shorter period. It will further prove that the companies are not
only valuing their customers, but also their staff to make it easier for them to remove the
unnecessary works that can be easily embedded to their palm of their hand.

2. Identify the problems that business in this case study solved by using mobile digital devices

In general, the invention and development of the applications provides better solution for many
unnecessary problems faced in the past and also have increased by the efficiency. All the
applications invented have somehow ease the extra loads of company staff and their customers in
order to fulfill the required needs.
There are at least four problems I identified from this case study that have been solved by using the
mobile digital devices:

1. Firstly, case study shows that there are plenty of simple problems happening like the
repeating like repeating tasks on auditing and writing order have been resolved by the
development of Sonic’s service pad and SKF’s Data collection application.
2. Secondly, problems like looking up a product’s every detail separately along with multiple
documents handling at once was also being solved by the development of Sonic’s Virtual
Lot and SKF’s Shelf applications.
3. Thirdly, the communication barrier occurred between corporate members and operators
have raised attention as well. Some applications such as SIMS by Sonic Automotive and
MOST by SKF help to resolve this problem.
4. Lastly, Virtual Reality application by SKF provides the support to check every single part of a
machine separately. This highly technical application has been equipped with 3-D overlap
by a camera and have the capability to identify the company parts.

3. What kinds of businesses are most likely to benefit from equipping their employees with
mobile digital devices such as iPhones and iPads?
I personally believe that mobile digital devices that provide support for customized job
application can be beneficial to be utilized by any businesses. Regardless its complexity, every
business has plenty of tasks that can be programmed and embedded into custom made
applications, which will further benefit both employees and customers.
There are few examples I would like to discuss here:
a. In a food and beverage industry, employees can utilize mobile digital device to collect
and submit the orders also to communicate with the chef/cook on special request.
Besides, it will help the cook to be updated about inventory numbers on each food item.
b. In hotel industry, employees can search the availability of the rooms easily within a
short time
c. In a Housing and Real estate industry, employees may communicate with their
customers and clients for properties on sale.
d. In Retail Industries, employees can retrieve product-related information they would like
to know about.

4. One company deploying iPhones has said, “The iPhone is not a game changer, it’s an industry
changer. It changes the way that you can interact with your customers” and “with your
suppliers.” Discuss the implications of this statement.

On my point of view, the above-mentioned quote reflects the idea that the functionalities on
the IPhone applications are not only beneficial for the companies to speed up their
productivities and services that were previously available before the era when IPhone was used,
but also, it expands the company by the creating of customized applications.
Gloria Jeans Coffee for example, they came up with the idea of customer loyalty programs, and
by the use of custom made IPhone application by the companies, the amount of customers
participating on the loyalty program are increasing.

Another important point I would like to highlight here is custom made applications available in
the IPhone has changed the pattern of interaction between company and their stakeholders,
such as supplier. They can easily communicate reciprocally with their suppliers and keeping the
update of their inventory status.

As previously discussed on the case study, SIMS application by the Sonic Automotive for
example, and Shelf by SKF, both provide support for the company to manage the inventory
checks. These applications are not only help to keeps tracks of the amount of inventory needed
to be restocked but it also reduces the unnecessary returns to the suppliers.