Management Information System

Spring Assignment
MB0047/MBF203
Nandeshwar Singh
Roll No. 1408001255

Q1 Today’s life, information rely on information systems, generally interested

based, for conducting their personal lives for: Shopping, socializing, banking,
study, entertainment etc. Information technology refers to the anything
computed technology such as hardware, software, networking, the internet,
and the people that work with these technologies. How do you difference
between information system and information technology?

Answer. Information system is a collection of hardware, software and network and people that
creates stores, modifies, and distributes data and information in an orgainisation. Information
technology comprises hardware, software and network, art, facts that constitutes the material
components of information systems. Let discuss the difference between these are following:

IT is what the people buy and configure and use, whereas IS the manner in which we understand,
conceptually, the use of IT in orgainisation and by people. Here an example to understand the
difference. Any orgainisation may but IT components such as printers that are provided to
offices for their printing needs. The printer itself is an artefact of IT, which is a tangible object or
tool. Its function is well defined and limited: It has to print the text or images on paper in a
manner defined by the user of the printer.

In this example, printer is part of the IS of the orgainisation and plays a role in preparing reports
and memos. It becomes relevant and useful for the orgainisation when it prints properly and in
the manner required by the user becomes a problem when it cannot print due to some
malfunction. In other word, the role and relevance of the printer determined by the needs of the
orgainisation, the people who are using IS and the purpose for which they are using it. IT
understood as the artefacts such as computing devices, software and network devices that
constitute the material aspects of IS. However, information systems are constituted by the
artefacts of technology as well as the people are in orgainisation that are use them.
Q2. Explain decision making with MIS using Travelling salesman problem?

Answer. The information system helps the employees and managers make decisions. Decisions
are either for the short term, mean for immediate action, or for the medium term where the
impacts of decisions are felt over days or weeks, or for the long term, where impacts are
experienced over the weeks and months. Systems are designed specifically for all types of
decision making situations. There are many types of communication that are enables modern
orgainisation to function efficiently. It has further types are following:

• Tactical Decision: Decision that has a short-term impact and is taken by workers and
operators.

• Operational Decision: Decision that has a medium-term impact and is taken by

managers and supervisors.

• Strategic decision: Decision taken by high-level executives that have long-term

impact.

The Travelling Salesman Problem:

New Delhi 1461

1407 744

Bhopal Ranchi

2061 Kolkata

Mumbai 1401 2095 1996

Bangalore

1329

331 Chennai
The figure depicts the travelling of the salesman problem which an example of operational
decision. The salesman has to cover all this cities in one tour at the lowest possible cost.

The salesman can start from Bangalore and then follow any sequence, such as Chennai-
mumbai-Bhopal-new delhi-kolkata-ranchi or Kolkata-Ranchi-New Delhi-Mumbai-
Bhopal-Chennai. If all the combination of cities is counted, there are 720 ways in which
the salesman can cover all the cities after starting from Bangalore. Each of these is called
a tour. For the lowest cost tour the salesman would have to calculate the distance covered
for each possible tour and take the shortest one.

If the salesman starts the tour from any of the other six cities, the problem increases to
5040 possible tours! It was very difficult to complete the lowest cost for such a large
number of tours. Hence it is a wise step to rely on a decision support system that can do
the job efficiently.

Q3. How to use the Information system to support the competitive

strategy? Explain each category with examples?
Answer. The competitive strategy of a commercial firm is its long term competitive
position, such as of a low-cost player or a differentiation which the firm adopts. A firm’s
strategy is the set of activities it engages in as part of its long-term competitive goals.
Strategies lead to operational goals and to tactics that the firm undertakes. Use of IS to
support competitive strategy are as following:

• Create barrier to entry for competition- To create barriers to entry of

new completion firms may lock-in existing customers with loyalty programmers
and free access accounts created with information systems. Data from such
loyalty programs can also be used to identify customer’s tastes and patterns of
buying to further provide them with goods and services. For example Yatra.com
is an online travel portal that enables customers to buy airline and railway tickets
from its sites. It maintains a loyalty programmed by providing discount coupons
to customers who purchase frequently.
 • Reduce bargaining power of supplier- The bargaining power of supplier
is reduced by creating customized logistic channels with suppliers that enables an
exclusive access, thus increasing costs for suppliers if they want to seek other
customers. For example Deutsche Post DHL information systems to link all its
partners in its logistics chain. This not only creates barriers to entry to
competition, but also prevents its suppliers from seeking other partners.

• Reducing bargaining power of buyers- The bargaining power of buyers

is reduced by providing low-cost, bundled services from a single source that is
highly customize to their needs. They would not be prone to seek alternative
sources if a sufficient lock-in is created. For examples by creating an online
facility for buying tickets, the Indian Railways has reduced the need for its
customers to seek alternatives.

• Provide low cost products- Transactions cost are reduced by having

information systems that increase the volume and speed of transactions. When
scaled up, this gives a significant competitive advantage. For example ICICI Bank
initiated a network of automated teller machines across India to reduce costs of
banking for clients.

• Provide niche products- A differentiation strategy is possible by reaching out to

new markets and customers using the internet. Information systems help customize
offering and also provide high efficiency levels for implementing the strategy.

Q4. Decision making is the Daily activity for the human being. In the decision
making process, we choose one course of action from a few possible
alternatives. In the process of decision making we may use many tools,
techniques and perception. Describe the Herbert Simon Model on Decision
making?
Answer. Herbert Simon, the Nobel Prize winning researcher, showed that humans
 went through three essential stages in the act of problem solving. He also called these
the intelligence, Design and Choice stages. Decision making can also be considered
as a type of problem solving. When making a decision, human tend to follow Simon’s
Intelligence-Design-Choice Model. Figure depict this model

In first stage, that the Intelligence, they collect information about the issue from the
environment and the surrounding context. For example, if a person is faces a problem with a
travelling from Bangalore to New Delhi, a distance about 2000km, then in Intelligence stage the
person will seek all possible information of how to travel – by air, by train, by bus.

Apply the criteria to settle on one out of many alternative solutions

Once the intelligence information is available, the decision makers move on to the next stage
which is the design stage. The question addressed at this stage is as follows; what criteria should
be used to decide between the alternative possible solutions to the problem? This requires the
decision maker to settles on the criteria that are more important, and the select or rank-order
them.

At the next stage, that of choice, the criteria are applied to select the best answer from
the available choices. The criteria may be weighted and these weights are applied in a
formal manner, often with the help of a mathematical model. Once a solution is
available, the session maker may be satisfied with the answer or may return to earlier
stages to redo the process.

At the choice stage, the criteria and parameters for decision help curtail the amount of
search required to arrive at a decision. If the criteria are not specified sharply then the
number of alternatives to be considered to arrive at a decision may be a very large.
This stage may also require returning to the intelligence gathering activity, and then
to design stage to change or modify the criteria and the weights used to apply them.
Q5. Write short notes on

a. Data administration

b. Managing concurrency

c. Reduced data redundancy

d. Recovery from crashes

e. Data access

Answer. 1. Data administration: It entails deciding who can create, read, update or delete
data. Many organizations have strict controls over who can create or delete data fields or tables.
This is determined by the needs of the organizations and the roles defined for database
administrators and users. Read access is usually provided to those who need to only see and use
the data, but not modify and change it in any way.

2. Data access: data stored in database must be accessible efficiently. Very large databases,
such as those maintained by e-bay, have to be managed in a way that when users search within
them, their results should be available within a matter of seconds. A search in e-bay results in a
response within few seconds, even through the systems has to search through billions of records.

3. Reduced data redundancy: One goal of databases is to reduce data redundancy. It refers
to the duplication of data in different tables. If data on students is maintained in two three
different databases in the collage than for one change, say in a student’s mobile phone number,
all the databases have to be changed. Reduced data redundancy ensures that minimum storage is
used for the data.

4. Recovery from crashes: Databases are crucial to the internal working of the
organization. They are both the resource and the asset of the organization, It is imperative that
the data is secured against failure. Modern database systems provide a sophisticated system of
backup, mirroring and recovery from crashed servers.

5. Managing concurrency: A serious challenge for modern databases, especially those used
for e-commerce applications is that of managing concurrency. Data is often maintained on many
servers, distributed across a wide geography. It entails that changes or updates to a particular
element in a table are reflected across all the distributed servers where users access data.
Q6. Write a short note on:

A. Role of workplace monitoring.

B. Power over user.

Answer. A. Role of workplace – The rationale for monitoring from the fact that
information about activates is useful. For commercial organizations, the security aspect of
information is paramount. Information entering the orgainisation through e-mail and websites
represents security threats owing to the massive presence of virus, worms, and other malicious
software. Management concerns of privacy are often over-hidden by the concern for security –
All activity related to data and files being brought into the orgainisation are thus monitored.

Another concern of orgainisation is that of abusive and threatening software and data that may
be brought in from outside and that may harm employees. Fore example, orgainisation monitor
computers and networks for pornographic or hateful literature or videos that employees will be
wary of. These materials are not owned by the orgainisation but if found on its digital networks;
the orgainisation could face serous changes of discrimination, harassment or abuse from its own
employee.

a. Power over user – An individual is said to have a power over a person when the
individual can influence the thinking or behaviour of that person. For the information
systems professionals, this power is their ability to make IT user listen to and agree to
what they say. The user may not be persuaded by this answer as he/she knows that files
can also be attached in the uncompressed format, provided they are not longer than size
permitted by the e-mail system. However, the user listens to the professional and sends
the file in a zipped form.

There is a suitable difference between having power and executing power. Exercising power
implies that the individuals who have power actually enforce it and have their way over the
thinking and behaviour of others. The exercise of power is a deliberate act that ensure in a
particular situation. Power in an orgainisation is associated with a position in hierarchy or
with assumption of superior knowledge. A systems professional is more powerful in some
situations owing to his superior knowledge of information technology.