Upper Management Information Systems Executive Support Systems example essay topic

CONFIDENTIAL MIchigan Supply Inc. Information Systems Initial Plan for Year 2005-20008 CONTEXT MIchigan Supply Inc. (MIS Inc.) is a privately-held automotive parts supplier of a variety of products such as electronics, solenoids, wiring and fuel components. The company is currently located in Rochester Hills, Michigan. INITIAL COMPUTER SYSTEMS MIS is currently separated into 5 departments: Manufacturing and Production with engineers, machine workers and production managers; Finance and Accounting with accounts; Human Resources with human resources staff; Sales and Marketing with salespeople, sales managers, customer service representatives; and Upper Management with secretaries and executives. Required systems and job Functions Each department has its required systems and different job functions which as listed below: o Manufacturing and Production information systems SS Machine control system to control the actions of machines and equipment Production planning system to decide when and how many products should be produced Facilities location system to decide where to locate new production facilities Graphic system for engineers to design or improve product so Finance and Accounting information systems SS Accounts receivable system to track money owed the firm Budgeting system to prepare short-term budgets Profit planning system to plan long-term profit so Human Resources information systems SS Training and development system to track employee training, skills, and performance appraisals Compensation analysis system to monitors the range and distribution of employee wages, salaries, and benefits Human resources planning system to plan the long-term labor force needs of the organization Sales and Marketing information systems Order processing system to enter, process, and track orders Pricing analysis system to determine prices for products and services Sales trend forecasting system to prepare 5-year sales forecast so Upper Management information systems Executive support systems to address non-routine decisions requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight; and to filter, compress, track display critical data of greatest importance to executives.

Equipment and configuration Currently MIS has 12 machine workers so we need at least 35 workstations. Initially there should be a black and white printer for each of 5 departments and color printers available for engineers, executives and salespeople. Required server services include email, file storage, printing, backup functionality and battery backup system. In addition to the 4 laptops executives currently have, 5 more should be purchased for salespeople for mobility. Equipment to be purchased should be the latest models which are capable of providing the 3 years of services and growth. Fig. 1 shows the company infrastructure configuration.

We expect to have 50 k to spend on 35 workstations ordered from Dell, 10 k on 8 printers from Hewlett-Packard, 200 k on server equipment, which should cover the costs of battery backup network switches, servers, tape storage device, serve / workstation software licensing, and 10 k on 5 Toshiba laptops for salespeople. INTERNAL NETWORKING CONFIGURATION Fig. 2 shows the preliminary network configuration sketch. MIS will provide a star topology for the LAN connection. This enables a centralized network to have a limited distance of cable and a more manageable physical network.

Also use local service provider AT&T to connect to outside network. Maximum speed with 512 k is good enough for MIS to start with 47 employees at this time. Evaluate possibility to increase the port speed after 2.5 years of operations. About 13 k is expected to be put on the internet service each year. DATABASE MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE (DMS) Distributed databases for each department would be good to store all the documents profiling information dispersed throughout through out that particular department. The information is stored at various points so employees in the same department can access the same information.

Though the data is stored in multiple physical locations, the distributed database is centrally managed. Fig. 3 shows the structure of distributed database of each department. Distributing the database compartmentalizes the information, greatly reducing the chance of loosing the entire database. 75 k has been proposed to be spent on the DMS offered by Microsoft. Major entities within the databases are listed below: Manufacturing and Production: SS Product information e.g. designs, descriptions, price, manufacture date and quantity Order information e.g. order date, order quantity, delivery date Material supplier information e.g. name, address, material price Finance and Accounting: SS Financial information e.g. how much MIS owe, how much other companies owe MIS, budget, profit / loss SS Payroll information e.g. employee's salary, paycheck printing date Invoice information e.g. invoice number, date and address of invoice sent Human Resources: SS Corporate policies / guidelines SS Employees personal information e.g. resumes, benefits, training Job postings Sales and Marketing: SS Sales information e.g. presentations, contacts Customer information e.g. name, address, quantity bought Price information e.g. updates, competitors' offers Promotion information e.g. time, duration and outcome of a promotional campaign, plan for the next promotion Upper Management: SS Decision making information e.g. short-term and long-term plans, business strategies Internal information e.g. analysis and information from operations personnel, supervisors and middle managers or financial department External information e.g. news related to business-COMMERCE STRATEGY In order to be successful in the creation of an e-commerce strategy, MIS needs careful consideration in order to achieve a balanced strategy in which a few items we need to pay special attention to: o The basis of a strong and flexible IT infrastructure upon which to deploy the e-commerce strategy. o Active support by the MIS's content owners, which are groups and individuals that have a direct stake in the e-commerce strategy. o The ability to climb the learning curve quickly. MIS should evaluate every 6 months about whether we are best using e-commerce. o Adoption of a sourcing option that reflects the mission-critical nature of the Internet.

MIS may start with an in-house group thrown together or looks for complete outsourcing. o A MIS website should be developed with company information, goal, mission, product information and a search function to advertise our products and services. After a year if we have good feedback of the website, we should consider putting web customer services such as online order systems to save cost and time of business processes. END-USER COMPUTING (EUC) To help MIS achieve maximum benefits of and to have a better control over end-user applications development, policies for management should established systems such as requiring cost justification of end-user information system projects and establishing hardware, software, and quality standards for user developed applications. The policy should include a clear definition of EUC applications used to conduct MIS business. Applications can be developed in-house for now to save costs by using commercial software such as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, database systems, statistical packages, etc.

A statement that MIS employees are encouraged to pursue End-User Computing (EUC) to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of operations is required. MIS should include documentation with an appropriate level of detail and it should be maintained on a schedule sufficient to keep it current to any significant changes in the application. The most recent documentation shall be readily available at all times and must include the following information: o Instructions on how to access the application. If the application is on the user's hard drive, a directory path should be provided. If the application is stored on removable media, the location of the media should be provided. If the application is accessible through the campus network, procedures for accessing the application should be provided. o The application's name and a brief description of its purpose. o Instructions on how to initiate or invoke the program.

Specifically, which commands or series of commands are needed to initiate or run the programs associated with the application. o Instructions on how to exit the application. o A record which details the source (s) of data entered into the information system such as electronic downloads or data feeds, receipts, applications, revenue or expenditure documents, etc. o Samples of output documents such as forms, reports, and data entry screens. o Paper or independently accessible electronic copies of database file structures which should include the name of each field and the field type and length. o Paper or independently accessible electronic copies of program instructions. In keeping with the applicability requirements above, department heads and directors are responsible for ensuring that sufficient documentation exists for EUC applications developed and used by the departments. Departments are also responsible for performing backups of data generated from these applications that are managed / controlled solely by the end user. Responsibility for assuring appropriate documentation of EUC applications rests with department heads and directors and may be subject to review by Management Services as part of its on-going program of periodic audits of operations.

Interpretation of this policy rests with the CEO and is delegated to the CIO. COMPOSITION OF IS DEPARTMENT Typically there should be at least 1 User / Workstation Support Technician for every 25 to 30 users, so hiring 2 of these technicians would be sensible, with 55 k each as base salary depends on their technical knowledge and experience. Besides the User / Workstation Support Technicians, we also need 1 Network Administrator as well as 1 IT manager with 70 k and 100 k base salaries respectively. Therefore, the IS department have 4 people as a start, which include: 1 CIO 2 User / Workstation Support Technicians 1 Network Administrator 1 IT managerSUMMARYThis proposal is an initial plan for information systems of MIS Inc. for year 2005 to 2008.

The proposed expense is about 1.4 million, which is within the 1.5 million budget. Table 1 has a detailed breakdown of items to be purchased and personnel to be hired for the IS Department.