Information Systems and Management: Decision Making

This paper makes an attempt to formulate various strategies for OFF Ltd aimed at enhancing the organizational efficiency and performance. The paper first dwells on the concept of Business organization in context of OFF Ltd and moves on management decision-making process across the organizations in general and in OFF Ltd In particular. The role of Information in decision-making Is discussed at length. The paper moves on to different kinds of Information System (IS) and how they affect decision-making and how using these information systems might benefit OFF LTD in pursuit of their strategic objectives.

The paper ends with logical conclusions and recommendation for OFF Ltd. The Business Irreconcilableness Organizations may be visualized as organized groups or communities that specialist in manufacturing various types of products or provide, services of various kinds. The free dictionary (2006) defines business organizations as, "an area of law that covers the broad array of rules governing the formation and operation of different kinds of entities by which individuals can organize to do business".

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Carter Manager (2006) defines Organizations as," a group of people Intentionally organized to accomplish an overall, common goal or set of oils. Business organizations can range in size from two people to tens of thousands". These organizations differ based on the goals and objectives that they aim to achieve. Some organizations may be for profit while others may be not for profit while some others may be charitable organizations.

Various characteristics of an organization include a cohesive group of mostly like- minded people working together to achieve certain goals and objectives Typically, business organizations work towards achieving a vision, which is often directed by a mission statement.

Various strategies are formulated in order to achieve various objectives within constrains of environment In which the business operates. The process is defined as strategic management and may be spread across all functional levels. r goals and essential policies or plans for achieving those goals, stated in such a way as to define what business the company is in or is to be in and the kind of company it is or is to be". The Managing Director of BE F Allophones De Marco is a forward-looking ambitious man keen to improve the performance of his company. He is quality conscious and wants the company to adapt to various quality practices and is therefore wing for registries OBSESS accreditation. The company's organizational structure is shown in figure No 1.

The functional organization of the company consists of Operations, Sales and Marketing, Finance, Human resources and Information technology. A departmental head looks after day-to-day activities of all these functional departments. It appears Information technology has limited or negligible role in functional strategy of the organization. Problems faced by OFF:Company has some problems encountered in all its functional area and have been outlined in Table No 1. Table No 1 Problems faced by OFF Ltd:Department Sales &

MarketingOperationsFinanceHuman Reclassification's Technologically Parlous McFarland Dimensional Leghorn Incompressible: slivery of wrong protectorate Deliveries. Collette orders. Equably products,slow priority given to important orders. Spoor inventory management. Clack of a proper supply accomplishment and erroneous Sales Repository flow and utilization of financial data. Chaparral data is outsourced. Clack of definite HRS policies. Climate relearned further development and more roles in the strategic planning of OFF. SOOT Analysis of OFF Ltd:Strengths:cornicing Food.

Steady Growth with steady turnover and profitability. Cooperating in food industry which is non seasonal and has business all through the year. Shahs a robust supplier base spread across entire Europe. Company has a large customer base. Weaknesses:seem to have a poor organizational culture as manifested in various problems encountered by various functional departments. Climate role of Information Technology in strategic decision-making. Clack of scientific inventory management and supply chain. Opportunities:Esther are opportunities to grow and be the market leader. Information technology can be exploited for strategic imitativeness's:compartmentalizing tastes of customers. Capability of substitutes. Management Decision Mismanagement decision-making depends on a number of factors, most important being the management philosophy and behavior. There are three levels identified:occupational Anagrammatically Misinterpretation Misinterpretation's managers or frontline managers are concerned with day-to-day works in the organization mostly handling tasks of routine and repetitive nature.

The information required for this level of decision- making could include:sours worked by employees in a weekqVacanciesqCurrent tock elephantiasis's redirectors-in-progress levels. Tactical managers are responsible for short term strategic plans of the company. These may be departmental heads - middle management - and their priorities are to allocate resources and control these so that they are used effectively to achieve strategic objectives.

The type of information required to sustain decision-making at this level would include such items as:superconductive - output per person hour or per machine horseless analyses by salesperson or by sales reaches flow projectionsqDepartmental staffing liverworts results within a department. Tactical decisions relate to the business, its suppliers and customers, and typically cover the present and the near future. These plans are made less frequently than operational decisions, perhaps weekly or monthly. Strategic management is concerned with long-term plans, and typically taken by the top management.

The information required to make such decisions would embrace such items as:carports on overall profitability's profitability of major sections of the business or of productions cash argumentativeness's of current market transcontinental of future market prospects. Management Decisions at OFF Ltd:l . At Strategic level the top management and the functional team leaders have to take various strategic decisions such as defining mission vision and short and long term strategies for the organization. 2.

At Strategic level the managing director has to formulate an effective Information system strategy aimed at full exploitation of the available data and information. The information system strategy. This would enhance operational efficiency for example an Information technology based supply chain management will improve inventory management system and will avoid duplication of stock. Integrating various racketing, ordering and supply to the supply chain will avoid ordering of unavailable items. Similarly a computerized payroll will improve human resource management efficiency. . Operational decisions at OFF involve day-to-day working, such as orders and supplies, marketing reports, vacancies, payroll etc. Decision-making is made at all the three levels though with varied emphasis on different levels. At operational level the information required arises from mainly internal sources, while at strategic level the information is almost exclusively external. Computer based information systems are developed in order to take the operational decisions since the data is readily available and is reliable.

Information System and Management Decision System:limitation systems are classified as follows:l . Management information system. 2. Operational system. Management Systems. 3. Decision support systems. Expert estrangement's Information System: This gathers, organizes, and summarizes data in for coordinating, controlling, and decision-making task. Lauded (2002) writes about importance of management information System, "Management information system is essential for creating competitive firms, managing global corporations, and providing useful products and revises to customers. Information system provides information figure of reports and displays to managers. For example, sales managers through intranet may access sales reports conduct and sales analysis. Rapid advances in Information technology coupled with growths of the have changed the way business is conducted world over. According to Garret, (2000) various factors that determine the usefulness of information to management are: quality, timeliness, completeness, and relevance, he goes on to add, "Accuracy and reliability determine the quality of information.

According to Evolving (1993), "information as accuracy refers to the extent to which information effectively represents a situation as it really is, the accuracy of each source of data used varied widely. "Timeliness is another important factor especially in today's dynamic business environment Real time information system is the call of the day where decisions are made based on the most current and latest information. "Accounting information should be made available to external decision-makers before it loses its capacity to influence decisions. (Dockland 992). Information must be competitive if it has to help the decision-making. At the same refers to the capacity of accounting information to make different to external decision-makers who use financial reports. Operational Systems: are concerned with transaction handling and the day-to-day operation of the organization, usually for a particular department within the organization. Data are entered and stored in a file format, and are updated regularly during routine processing.

Decision support systems: give direct computer support to managers during the decision-making process. A Decision Support System is an interactive information system that rely on integrated user-friendly hardware and software designed to assist mangers make decisions related to the efficient and profitable running of the business. Expert systems: can provide expert advice for operational chores like equipment diagnostics, or managerial decisions such as loan portfolio management. O'Brien, 1997) Expert systems have been developed for subjects such as medical diagnosis, oil exploration, financial planning, taxation return preparation, chemical analysis, surgery, weather prediction, computer repair, nuclear power plant operation, newspaper layout, interpreting government regulation, and troubleshooting imputer systems configurations (Long, 1994)OFF can install a management Information system based on accurate, timely, relevant and complete information. The entire organization has to be aligned with the strategic goals and objectives of the organization.