Q1.

Describe the Information Systems Requirements of the organization at three managerial levels.

A1. Hierarchy @Managerial Levels Store Level (Operational) 1. Store Manager Managerial Level 1. DSM (District Sales managers) 2. RDO (Regional Directors of Operations) 3. Senior Regional Directors Strategic Level (or corporate) 1. Store Controllers 2. Vice President of Operations 3. Debbi (Owner)

At the Store level, the store manager required: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Menu specific projections of achievable sales target for the day. Continuous review of projected sales as per customer count. Time clocks: How many batches to mix and when to mix them. Labor scheduler Inventory management: Computation of supply needed Interview scheduling & resume scanning Skill testing and electronic and voice communication with the HQ Sales recording

At the Managerial Level 1. District Managers need lots of data about the sales, number of customers, their time of visit, and item-specific demand. The Info system needs to compile this data for the district managers. 2. Analysis tools: The Information systems needs to generate trends based on the data collected (as mentioned above). This is needed for setting quotas. 3. The information system should also be able to come up with store based predictions of future growth prediction which would assist the regional managers to devise appropriate marketing strategies. 4. It helped in calculating cash underages and outages.

At the Corporate or Managerial level 1. Centralized system to compute performance of store managers. 2. Information system should transmit all information from the store and the operation department to the main HQ. 3. Information system should be able to replicate Debbis standards. It should be able to virtually connect Debbi to each store manager. 4. The information system should be able to route Debbis message to the particular store and vice versa. And messages would be both written and voice ones. 5. Financial analysis of data generated from all the stores, and consequent trend predictions. 6. Physical property management 7. Systems development: improving processes; increasing sales; Strategic efficiency.

Q2. Discuss how MIS provided the top management personal control over dispersed operations in the company. A2. The MIS was designed in a bottom-up approach where we have lots of information from the base level which then filtered, analyzed and interpreted. This is then utilized to help in decision making which would provide a strategic edge to the company. Strategic means promoting sales and controlling labor and food costs. And the MIS did just that! The MIS controlled almost everything that was mechanical in nature: 1. It decided the baking schedule of each day, suggested when to do sampling and also maintaining quality checks. This helped maintain Debbis control over each of her operations and maintain quality. 2. It allocated quotas to each store manager. 3. Hourly goals were set based on real time sales. 4. Managers could communicate with Debbi via electronic mail and even voice mail! Debbi herself responded to each voice message directly sent to her, within 48 hours of receiving it. This made managers feel her presence even in her absence. 5. The centrally connected servers transmitted information about sales to the HQ daily, hence the top management knew immediately which store was not meeting its objectives and was able to respond quickly. 6. Sales were usually automatically entered thanks to the automated cash registers. This eliminated chances of manipulation of data. 7. The electronic communication system also retrieved mails for the respective store managers to their PCs automatically. 8. The HR functions were also closely controlled. The automated resume scan function helped in short-listing employees who matches Debbis requirement, rather than what the store manager

may want. However, it also gave some handle to store managers but not complete control over selection of candidates.

Q3. Explain how store managers, regional directors and controllers used MIS to focus more on strategic aspects than administrative functions. A3. Strategic aspects include promoting sales and controlling labor and food costs. Store Managers: The MIS helped them avoid paperwork related to recording sales, calculating inventory, deciding on which and how many cookies needed to be baked, and other specification related to quality checks. Even labor allocation was decided by the MIS. This made the store managers focus more on the customers and on selling cookies. Rather than calculating sales targets for the day, they focused on achieving them. This promoted sales and reduced wastage. Regional Directors: The MIS helped them in many ways. It collected all the data from the stores under them and then filtered, analyzed and interpreted it to make it useful for them. The main focus of the directors was to study the reports to come up with plans for the future. The local marketing decisions were made by them on the basis of the reports generated by the MIS and their subsequent validation. Controllers: The controllers job was to manage anywhere between 35-75 stores. The MIS helped them by collating all the data, product, date and store wise. They had access even to the cash overages and underages on a daily basis, and they contacted the field managers for explanation. The MIS was so quick that within 24 hours of the store controllers review, Debbi had access to every controllers report at an aggregate level. The MIS also helped them analyze unusual trends, problems and conditions.

Q4. How MIS helped the Managing Director to operate each store as a profit centre? A4. A profit center is a section of a company treated as a separate business. Thus profits or losses for a profit center are calculated separately. A profit center manager is held accountable for both revenues, and costs (expenses), and therefore, profits. What this means in terms of managerial responsibilities is that the manager has to drive the sales revenue generating activities which leads to cash inflows and at the same time control the cost (cash outflows) causing activities. The MIS was designed to tackle accounting in a straightforward way. No corporate expenses were allocated to stores and only expenses incurred in the store were charged to the store, thereby laying the foundation of running stores as profit centers. Also, each stores data was available at the click of a button and all analysis could be done on that stores data, making the job of the MD easier.

Q5. Briefly discuss the following Tracking financial performance Scheduling of activities Marketing Support Interviewing Activities A5. 1. Tracking Financial Performance: A key job of the MIS was to track the financial performance of the cookie stores. 1. The first job was to treat each store as a profit center (discussed in A.4). 2. Automated cash registers linked to the MIS. 3. Inventory evaluation application ensured no discrepancy was there in COGS. 4. Hourly sales quotas 2. Scheduling of activities: The MIS scheduled many activities, such as deciding on the quantity of cookies to be baked per hour based on the types of cookies entered by the manager. It also told the number of batches to mix and when to mix them! And to maintain quality, the doughs useful life would also be mentioned after which it would have to be discarded. Inventory checking system automatically came up with the supply to be ordered. Interviews were also scheduled. 3. Marketing Support: Regional directors got all sort of data and trends and it was on the basis of these forecasts and trend analysis of each store individually, and demographically, that they were able to come up with store focused marketing strategies. 4. Interviewing Activities: The MIS helped the managers make better hiring decisions. After conducting initial interviews (screening), the information about the candidates was entered into the system, which compared it with the records of previous applicants who had been hired. This helped Mrs. Debbie Fields recruit those employees who were similar to those with whom she had started her cookie store in Palo Alto, California. The focus was on attributes such as honesty, punctuality, values, education, experience, knowledge, and attitude. This helped in achieving a better Person-Job fit, as well as a PersonOrganization fit. This was followed by an interview conducted interactively with the computer, the answers of which were compared with those of existing employees and were made a part of the database. *The manager could override the systems final recommendations

Q6. What is the advantage of developing information systems keeping in view managers perspectives?

A6. It is very important to develop information systems keeping in view managers perspective as no organization can afford to delink its systems from its human resources as the human resources are the ones who actually do the selling and interact with the customers. Its also vital to keep in mind that the data analysis and suggestions being churned out by the MIS are in tune with the capabilities of the employees (I dont mean that targets or quotas should be cut down, but the data should be presented in a way which looks achievable or doable to the employee.

Q7. What are the roles and responsibilities of MIS organization? A7. The MIS is an integrated man-machine system designed to help managers in strategic planning, management control, and operational control activities of an organization. Operational Control: Operational activities are the day to day activities of an organization, such as daily sales targets, employee shift management, data recording, automatic cash register etc. The MISs purpose is to automate these activities to give the employees more time to do meaningful activities which can be done only by humans. Management control: Planning work such as local marketing strategies, employee compensation, trend forecasting, quota setting, etc are decisions which are taken by the second rung employees, i.e. the managers. The MISs role is to analyze all the data from the various stores and to present it in a way that can be interpreted relatively easier to comprehend. It also has to predict any unusual activity or trend and immediately raise a warning. Strategic planning: This is concerned with promoting sales and controlling labor and food costs. The MIS should always be ready with a system which can generate an ad hoc cost-benefit analysis of a system or a process and be able to justify it on the basis of whether it can: 1. Cut costs (or increase savings) 2. Increase sales 3. Insightful decision making

Q8. What is an expert system? How expert systems provided decision support to managers? A8. An expert system is a computer system that emulates the decision-making ability of a human expert. Expert systems are designed to solve complex problems by reasoning about knowledge, like an expert, and not by following the procedure of a developer as is the case in conventional programming. An expert system has a unique structure, different from traditional programs. It is divided into two

parts, one fixed, independent of the expert system: the inference engine, and one variable: the knowledge base. To run an expert system, the engine reasons about the knowledge base like a human. Expert systems help in enhancing the quality and amount of knowledge available to decision makers. Also, the expert systems are equipped with self learning capabilities.

Q9. Keeping in view the expansion of the company, what types of systems are recommended for the company? A9. Since it has acquired LPB which is a large company and whose systems are not in sync with the current MIS of Mrs. Fields, it needs to first sync the MIS of LPB with its own. Then, it needs to have Operation Support Systems as the product range of LPB and its operations process are different from those of Mrs. Fields. These would include Transaction Processing System which would track all transactions of LPB and Mrs. Fields. Process Control System would also be needed to ensure quality is in sync with Mrs. Fields standards and that wastage doesnt take place. It will also need to update the capacity of its Enterprise Collaboration System to ensure seamless communication between all the new units.