Sample Term Paper on Management Information Systems

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Sample Term Paper on: Management Information Systems

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Management Information Systems

The Concerns of E-Commerce

In Internet time the attention span of customer is just 8 seconds. After that a shopper

typically moves on. Whats more is that the Forrester research reports that 42% of the

people leave a site unsatisfied will never return (Forrester, 1999). The cost of business in

uncompleted orders is simply staggering- early estimates put the monthly retailing losses

at $58 million.

The new research indicates that the figure has grown since then. Zona research estimates

that slow web response could result in losses as high as $102 million per month for the

consumer market alone. This is serious concern for the thousands of online retailing

companies and it will soon be a concern for many more.

E-Commerce and Data Warehousing

Integrated Information

An obligation for victorious trade intellect Business brains is about the management a

business by means of and examining a companys most priceless skill, its data. Using

business intelligence tools, data can be accessed and examined to provide the

decision-maker with important knowledge about the companys processes and financial

performance as well as customers and suppliers. This knowledge can then form the

foundation for mutually calculated and strategic decision-making in the company. IDC

believes that in the future, global enterprises will increasingly use business intelligence to

leverage their market position and achieve leadership. However, business decisions will

only be as good as the information they are based on. In order for a company to have an

efficient and successful business intelligence and reporting system in place, having a

unified perspective of the companys data is imperative. Without an overview of the entire

business, the ability to make sound judgments is lost. Without a global view of a customer

it is not possible to provide the optimal service. Without corporate consolidated spend,

negotiations with suppliers are weaker. The bottom-line is that without integrated

company-wide information, business decisions are uninformed decisions.

Reasons for the Information Integration Challenge

Providing a united view of the companys information assets to underpin business

intelligence is what information integration is all about. IDC has identified a core set of

requirements that information should comply with to form an appropriate basis for

Business decisions. These are:

Correct : Invalid data must not be permitted.

Complete : All the information relevant to the decision should be available.

Current : The information should be sufficiently up to date for the purpose, and

increasingly this means real-time currency.

Consistent : Where information is drawn from different sources, each source should

represent the same version of the truth.

While this might seem obvious, the scope of the challenge is considerable. The world of

today is characterized by constant change, and getting data that is correct, complete,

current and consistent is becoming increasingly difficult. This business reality requires

companies to embrace diversity and make the assumption that they and other companies

are constantly evolving. It is this reality of continuous change that places the extreme

demands of information integration on global organizations today.

Large companies with subsidiaries in many different locations usually operate as a group

of local units. Information is stored and managed in databases and packaged applications

such as ERP systems that have been bought from multiple vendors or custom-built to meet

the specific information management needs of the local subsidiary. These information

systems will evolve independently of one another to reflect changes and developments in

the local organizations. Trying to get a unified point of view of all systems is the most

important confrontation. The result is likely to be inconsistent reporting because of

differing terminology or definitions used in the different subsidiaries. Consider the

definition of a customer in one office a company might qualify as a customer as soon as

the first contact with the company has been made, but in another office that same company

might not be a customer before a contract has been signed. Another issue is that a single

customer will have multiple records in a companys information systems one for each of

the subsidiaries and one for each of the ways the companys name is written.

There is probably no such thing as a bad e-commerce customer. But which ones are the

best, the most likely to take an e-tailer into the promised land of perpetual profits?

E-commerce and CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

According to analysts, the perfect customer is an ever-moving target. Once, e-tailers

thrived by catering to young male customers who bought every new technological gadget

and computer accessory as soon as it hit the market.

Times are changing. The perfect customer now is just as likely to be an older female with

almost no interest in DVDs, scanners or digital cameras.

But finding and holding on to top customers is still a challenge because, by nature, Web

shoppers seem to be less loyal and more willing to spread their spending among various

sites. In other words, the perfect consumer is as hard to find and retain, as he or she is to

define.