KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES KNUST SCHOOL OF BUSINESS COURSE: MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSYTEMS COURSE CODE: ISD 254 DEPARTMENT: HUMAN RESOURCE AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT GROUP FIVE MEMBERS 1. Osman Abubakari Sadik. 4278218 2. Lawrenda Amedeka 4262518 3. Ruth Asuako. 4266418 4. Josephine Ankomah-Bioh. 4263918 5. Lilly Fredua Agyemang 4261418 6. Aduku Korbieh Sonia. 4259918 7. Agyei Huge. 4260718 8. Owusuaah Danquah Celestina Francess. 4278918 9. Boi Som Glenn. 4269318 10. Mathias Obo-Arthur. 4276118 QUESTION The IT department is said to be the platform on which other departments stand to achieve their goals. Choose an organization/ of the Ghanaian economy and discuss how they achieve their goals using information systems. INTRODUCTION Information Systems are combinations of hardware, software and telecommunications networks that people build and use to collect, create and distribute useful data, typically in organizational settings. It can also be defined as interrelated components working together to collect, process, store and disseminate information to support decision making, coordination, control, analysis and evaluation in an organization. It is made of five components: Hardware, Software, Data, People and Process. Hardware are the part of the Information System you can touch; the physical components of a technology such as computers, keyboard, flash drives and others. Software is also a set of instructions that tells the hardware what to do and is in two main categories; Operating system software and Application software. We can also think of Data, the third component as a collection of facts. Pieces of data aggregated can become a powerful tool for businesses. People are simply the users or managers of Information System. Front-line help workers, to systems analysts, to programmers, all the way to chief information officers play an essential role. The last component which is Process, is a series of steps undertaken to achieve a desired outcome or goal. Information systems play a bigger role of receiving data and turning it into information, and then transform that into organizational knowledge. All these components making up information systems are used in various sectors to achieve goals and objectives. In our hyper-connected world today, the telecommunication sector is one that uses its information systems to achieve its desired objectives. Ghana’s telecommunications system has also been experiencing continual improvement and reform. The National Communications Authority Act has been long-acting in regulating its policies and terms within Ghana’s lands. Over the last few years, Ghana’s market has been known to exponentially grow. 5 years ago, the growth rate was a staggering 62.3% while 8 years ago, 53.8% compound growth rate was recorded for Ghana’s telecom systems. The numbers are a reflection of the country’s steady development in line with their business plans. The number of telecom and internet fixed lines in Ghana has just been growing. There are five cellular network operators in Ghana namely: Scancom Ghana Limited (MTN), Vodafone Ghana Limited, Millicom Ghana Limited (Tigo), Airtel Communication and Globacom Ghana Limited (Glo) and as of January 2020. TELECOMMUNICATION SECTOR IN GHANA Telecommunications are a means of electronic transmission of information over distances. The information may be in the form of voice telephone calls, data, texts, images or videos. Today, telecommunications are used to organize more or less remote computer systems into telecommunications networks that are run by computers. Telecommunication happens when there is an exchange of information between participants with the help of technology. It is the lifeblood of our society and has helped make the world a global village with about 98 percent of the world under its network coverage. The importance of telecommunication has been experienced by every sphere of life, some of which are for the educational, health, businesses and economic purposes. Through the use of the internet, there has been the development of essay writing, which is the elearning, helping students learn without any difficulties even between longer distances. Telecommunications give an organization the capability to move information rapidly between distant locations and provide the ability for the employees, customers and suppliers to collaborate from anywhere, combined with the capability to bring processing power to the point of application. All of these offer firms’ important opportunities to restructure its business processes and to capture highly competitive ground in the market. For instance, telecommunications make it possible to create systems which restructure the interactions of people within a firm as well as a firm’s relationship with its customers. Telecommunications in Ghana include radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet. Some of the companies that operate in the telecommunications sector include MTN Ghana, Gateway, Mobile Choice, Airtel/Tigo Ghana, Globacom Ghana and Vodafone Ghana. Telecommunications is the main economic sector of Ghana according to the statistics of the World Bank due to the Ghana liberal policy around Information and communications technology (ICT). Among the main sectors of investments, 65% is for ICT, 8% for communications and 27% is divided for public administration- (Wikipedia) Ways through which the telecommunication sector uses information systems to achieve their goals in Ghana are as follow. Firstly, in the telecommunication sector in Ghana, management information systems enable compilation, processing and storage of information; with overall purpose to make information available on demand in the required format. Communication companies used modern computers and advanced servers connected to an advanced network and thus network connects all network communication centers to each other. The system is connected to the main server so that the data is stored and files on a central server, so it is easy to retrieve data when needed. The telecommunication companies develop the systems and network and provide technical support by specialists and experienced in this field. In addition, they provide specialized training programs for employees to help them use the information systems. Telecom companies cannot work without information systems as the number of participants in these companies increase rapidly especially MTN and Vodafone in Ghana, making it difficult to save data using manual method. Management information systems have assisted in automating tasks thereby saving time, money, resources, reduced staff and enhanced organizational workflow to enhance smarter decisions. For instance, MTN now allow customers to use ATM cards to withdraw money from ATM machine fixed at the various vantage points. Secondly, the telecommunication sector again uses information systems to do research and develop new ways to generate revenue, engage customers and streamline time-consuming tasks. Through information systems, cellular networks like MTN and Vodafone allow customers to transfer money from different countries through the banks to Ghana through Western Union Money Transfer. This has helped them generate a lot of revenue since many customers have joined these telecom companies so as to be able to send money to their relatives which is not bureaucratic. Since these technologies are automated, it reduces human effort and employees are focused more on the core aspects of the business rather than spending hours collecting data, filling out paperwork and doing manual analysis. Again, the Ghana interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) in January introduced the Mobile Money Interoperability system to ensure cross-network mobile money transactions. Thirdly, Vodafone introduced SAP- Initially the full form was “Systemanalyse und programmentwicklung” in German language. It is actually System analysis and programme development. Its functions include; Cash management- helps in balancing the cash inflow and outflow. Highlights the area where cash is used up like in buying high cost raw materials, inventory expenses, etc. Depending on the company’s expenses it can regulate the price at which Vodafone sells its sim cards, internet services and also helps deciding the roaming charges, call charges, message schemes, plans, etc. Budget planning- modifies the financial ratios to help predict the future scenarios and also in setting the financial goals for the company. Financial reporting- the system not only uploads the transactions directly in the general ledger but it also makes financial statements used for internal reports and shareholder use. Compliance with the government regulations, accounting standards and auditing requirements are also made easy. Reduced finance costs and workload- initially before the invention of computers accounts were maintained in account books and were written manually. To reduce this tedious work computers came into the market but did not possess an advanced technology to maintain complex accounts. Later came, the SAP system which not only could manage the various accounts but also could automatically upload any transactions occurring in every account. This reduced the time and cost of writing and managing accounts. In global companies like Vodafone which extends its branches all over the world SAP system serves as a boon for managing the finances. Fourthly, research has shown that Information Systems are mainly used to process data from the organization and present the output of it in the form of different types of reports used at intervals. One of the major needs of different levels of the purpose of the organization, its policies, programs, plans and goals. However, the decisions may be according to the ability of analytical approach of using the information of the manager. In our study of telecom/Mobile agency, head office allocates Customer verification and bill distribution cases to regional office. The Regional office further allocates selected case to different Telecom agencies. Without using information systems, it becomes very cumbersome to check the status of customer verification, recovery or bill distributed to the customer. But by using the information system, the Telecom agency can quickly determine the status of the stated scenario. Fifthly, information systems have aided a lot of radio and television stations generate a lot of customers, viewers and listeners. Most of these media stations have created websites through information systems to disseminate information. For instance, Joy News Television has myjoyonline.com which allows viewers to read every information they miss on Television. This innovation has increased their viewers hence generating a lot of funds for the media. Lastly, information systems techniques are used to provide information to the manager or higher authorities of the sector. The information manager especially is able to plan and control different operations of an organization that further helps them to take good decisions. Information systems have added one or more dimensions such as speed, accuracy, reliability and the increased volume of data that enables the consideration of more alternatives in decision making process. The purpose is to meet the general information needs of all the managers in the sector. Information systems provide information to the users in the form of reports. They offer summary reports on the operations of the sector and sometimes provide online link to individual transactions as well. That is why these systems are also called Operations Support Systems. In simple words, information systems provide information support for decision making in the organization. From the above analysis one thing is very clear that the use of management information system has helped telecommunication sector in a tremendous way not only in providing solutions to the service providers but to the company as a whole. The various systems mentioned above minimize workforce, man power, cost, time, complexity and flaws. Almost all of the telecommunication companies have to rely on these systems for managing any day to day work without which their work would be very complex. Thank you. REFERENCES https://www.ukessays.com/essays/information-technology/management-information-systems-ofvodafone-group-information-technology-essay.php Https://bus206.pressbooks.com by D Bourgeois.2014
