SIS 1027Y FOUNDATION OF IS
Name: Geetika Jhurry
CA IN LIEU OF EXAMS
MAY 2020
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................................. 3
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 3
QUESTION 1 .................................................................................................................................... 4
Question 2 .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Question 3 ........................................................................................................................................ 11
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Acknowledgement
.
Abstract
The aim of this assignment is to implement what we have learn in this
module and to understand the implementation of information systems
in a business. Technical issues is also addressed along with other
component of business like stakeholders.
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Case study
Kwiksave is a middle size supermarket. It want to offer faster and
better services as well as to improve the current method of work.
Kwiksave wants to upgrade its information systems and if necessary
implement new systems to make processes quicker and more
efficient.
QUESTION 1
What information systems and information technology are essential
for the efficiency of the key functional areas of the organisation?
Discuss on the key functional areas in this particular scenario.
“Functional areas are teams of employees who have similar skills and
expertise.”1 (Woods 2015) Example of Functional areas are Sales
and Marketing, Finance and Accounting and Human Resource.
Management Information System, MIS, is the type of information
system that cater for those functional areas at tactical level. “A typical
organization has operational-, management-, and strategic-level
systems for each functional area.” 2(Laudon 2006)
(Pradhan,2013)3
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Starting with Human Resource, the company is currently using a
Transaction Processing system(TPS). Human Resource consist of
many processes like selecting, hiring, evaluation, employee
remuneration and layoff. The information system that will now be use
for this particular functional area is the Human Resource Information
system, HRIS.
(Pradhan,2013)4
Managing Human Resource is complex and it also has access to all
internal stakeholders of the organisation. The system will manage
payroll, leave, attendance and reporting in a more integrated way. It
will also manage assets which are gadgets issued to employees and
self-service which enables an employee to have access to his or her
personal information and to update where needed. This will result in
less administrative work for employees working in HR department.
Information technologies to be use alongside the system are Database
management system for proper storage of personnel info and cloud
computing, should any crash occur all data will be accessible again
through the online storage. Additional Information technology for this
functional area could be video conferencing equipment to held
interviews remotely without having candidates lining up at the office.
Inventory control revolves around inventory list, reports, product
details and keep sales order and purchase order in sync with stock
present. It focuses on decreasing the amount of slow selling products
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that the company purchases while also rise the number of products
that are best sellers. Currently a Transaction processing system is
being used for inventory control and manages purchase order,
supplies received, packing material. The information system that will
be added to inventory control is the Inventory Control system. It
encloses all the characteristic for inventory control like purchase,
tracking, ordering, reordering, storage. Automation of those processes
can make the company gain competitive advantage and speed in
completion of mentioned processes. It will also receive data from the
TPS to build data summaries for proper decision making. Information
technologies to be use are database management system and cloud
computing for backup online storage.
Sales and Marketing functional area consist of making sales,
generating revenue and attracting new clients. The purpose of
marketing within the organisation is to establish the demand for actual
and potential clients and promote the services and products of the
organisation. The function of sales to sell the services and products of
the organisation successfully and turn potential clients into actual
clients. The current Management Information System will be
upgraded to effectuate more task. Sales and Marketing system will
now support the management by tracking the effectiveness of
processes like pricing, advertising, sales, discount, forecasting sales,
promotions. There can also be two different systems for sales and
marketing; sales management system and marketing information
system. These two system together make up the CRM system,
Customer Relationship Management System as they also cater for
actual and potential customers. Information technologies that would
be suitable here is data warehouse. The data warehouse will have data
from database of other functional areas as well as other sources. Data
warehouse is more preferable than data mart as data warehouse will
store both historic and current data. Analysing archives from the
warehouse helps immensely in decision making, tracing previous
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errors, avoid risks, spot trends in sales and purchase as well. Data
mining can be used to predict trends. There are sign that points to
trends ahead of time and data mining helps spot them and we can
therefore we can direct business into the right direction before trend
hits market.
Accounting and Finance functional area consist of financial
accounting, managerial accounting and cost accounting. Financial
accounting caters for statements of cash flows, ledgers, balance sheet,
tool to record financial transactions and statements generated from
accounting activities. Managerial accounting uses information from
similar documents as financial accounting for managerial decisions.
While both cost and managerial accounting is used for decision
making, cost accounting is used to inspect expenses. “Accounting
information system (AIS) involves the collection, storage, and
processing of financial and accounting data used by internal users to
report information to investors, creditors, and tax authorities. It is
generally a computer-based method for tracking accounting activity in
conjunction with information technology resources.”5(Tuovila 2019)
While the Current Information system is at operational level,
Executive Information System will now be use especially for ratio
analysis which is done in financial statement of the business. Ratio
analysis helps validate investments and decisions at strategic level. It
helps in spotting problem areas and enable comparison to other
organisation and help understand the company’s monetary position in
the economy. Data source for this system will be data warehouse as it
will need to get access to all financial details.
Production encompasses the products and services created by the
company. It transforms input in desired output. Products are
manufactured according to company’s quality specification. Strategic
level of production involves plant location, market share, competitors
and production process. Operational level consists of Bill of
Materials(BoM), Inventory(linked) and end item data. At this level,
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day to day transactions are performed and structured decisions are
taken as there are defined rules governing this level. The Transaction
processing system at operational level will be kept while a
Management Information system will be added which is at tactical
level. At that level we have planning, quality and inspection data,
personnel. Production Information System will generate necessary
information for decision making. The data sources for this
information system are Inventory control system, Human Resource
information system(HRIS), Sales and marketing, quality section all
through the data warehouse.
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Question 2
Who are the main stakeholders, both internal and external to the
organisation?
“A stakeholder is a party that has an interest in a company and can
either affect or be affected by the business.”6(Chen & Scott 2020)
(Whysall 2005)7
In the image above we can see stakeholder for a retail company.
Stakeholder can either be internal or external.
3 main internal stakeholders:
 Employee
1. Direct stake in company
2. Earn income
3. Earn other benefits either monetary or non-monetary or
both
 Manager
1. Govern operational decisions
2. Bridge between shareholders, board of directors and
organisation
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3. Make decision in regards to some internal stakeholders
 Owner
1. Has significant shares of organisation
2. Liable for organisation’s impact
3. Make decision in regards to both external and internal
shareholders
3 main external stakeholders:
 Customer
1. Organisation cannot exist without customer
2. Customer expects to buy best quality at fair price from
organisation
3. Organisation makes conscious effort to meet customer
needs
4. Customer has direct impact on product quality
 Supplier
1. Sells goods to organisation
2. Rely on sale of those goods for revenue
 Community
Benefits from organisation
1. Job creation
2. Economic development
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Question 3
Are there other technical issues that need to be considered?
Security
While implementing those upgrades or system itself we should keep it
mind that it should all be secured.
Possible threats are:




Accident/Natural disasters
Malware
Intruders/hackers
Outdated security software
Securing methods
 Firewall; Integrated as part of the computer system, the firewall
establishes a barrier between internal network and incoming
traffic from external sources. It blocks entry of malicious traffic
like viruses and hackers.
 Biometric system; System should be access by legitimate user
only. The more sensitive the data is, the more it should be
securely guarded. At some level Biometric system like finger
print can be added. Also actions that are run on system should
be traceable. A statement can be generated that details all access
that were attempted, granted or refused and the changes that
occurred.
 Backup; Back up for a system and its data is very important as
a system, software or hardware crashing is not always
inevitable. Cloud computing can be used for backup. One of it
important characteristic is that it can sync in real time, all recent
updates will already be stored in the cloud.
 Access Control Software; With this software who when and
where people can have access. It also limits access to designated
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work files only. Another characteristic of the software is that we
can control to what extent editing or modification is allowed in
certain areas. Software usually rely on user credentials and
access card readers.
 Virtual Private Network(VPN); VPN allows user to browse
privately and securely on the internet. It routs device’s internet
connection through chosen private server of VPN rather than the
user’s own internet service provider. Data being transmitted is
kept private by encryption. When connected to VPN, data is
encoded, therefore is it unreadable while its traveling. Device
will be seen as being on same local network as VPN as IP
address of device actually be IP address of VPN server. VPN
now will act as barrier while browsing.
Hardware
Hardware to be use for the systems should be fast and
powerful enough to make good use of the software.
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References
Q1
1
Woods, C 2015, Functional Areas of Business: Definition & Groups,
Viewed 19 May 2020,
https://study.com/academy/lesson/functional-areas-of-a-business-definition-lesson-quiz.html
2
Laudon, C 2006, Management Information Systems Managing Digital
Firm ninth edition, Prentice Hall,
https://paginas.fe.up.pt/~acbrito/laudon/ch2/chpt2-1main.htm
3
Pradhan, s 2013, Role of MIS in Functional areas, Digital image,
viewed on 19 May 2020,
https://www.slideshare.net/satya4/role-of-mis-in-functional-areas
slide 6
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Pradhan, s 2013, Role of MIS in Functional areas, Digital image,
viewed on 19 May 2020,
https://www.slideshare.net/satya4/role-of-mis-in-functional-areas
slide 20
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Tuovila, A 2019, What is an Accounting Information System(AIS),
Accounting Information System(AIS) Investopedia, viewed on 19
May 2020, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accounting-information-system-ais.asp
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Q2
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Chen and Scott, J and G 2020, What is a Stakeholder, Stakeholder
Investopedia, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/stakeholder.asp
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Whyall, P 2005, ‘Corporate-centric’ view of stakeholder management
in retailing,19 May 2020, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Retailers'-pressrelease-activity%3A-market-signalsWhysall/3c39dfb199e71837f5315e9dfa8421a9aee6f295/figure/0
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