Impact of Management Information System on Strategic Position of Morrisons

This report analyzes the strategic position of Morrisons in the market and the impact of Management Information System (MIS) on the company. It discusses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of Morrisons, as well as the strategic reasons and drivers for change. The report also explores the MIS options considered by Morrisons and the benefits of implementing MIS, including strategic benefits, productivity gains, operational efficiency, removal of non-value adding activities, links to cost leadership, and management, operational, and functional benefits. Overall, the report highlights the importance of MIS in gaining a competitive advantage and improving the functionality of the organization.

INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
AND
BUSINESS INFORMATION
SYSTEM

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Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................1
SWOT analysis......................................................................................................................................2
Strategic analysis...................................................................................................................................3
Strategic reasons and drivers for change............................................................................................3
MIS options considered.........................................................................................................................4
Impact Assessment................................................................................................................................5
Benefits of Implementation...................................................................................................................6
Strategic Benefit....................................................................................................................................6
Productivity gains..............................................................................................................................6
Improves operational efficiency....................................................................................................6
Remove non value adding activities..............................................................................................6
Links to cost leadership.................................................................................................................7
Management benefits.........................................................................................................................7
Operational benefits...............................................................................................................................7
Functional and Support benefits........................................................................................................8
Intangible benefits.............................................................................................................................8
Emergent Benefits.............................................................................................................................8
Recommendations and conclusion.........................................................................................................9
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................9

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INTRODUCTION
The business environment in different industries has changed. This change in the business
environment has led to long term effects on the strategies made by the organisations. It is
crucial for the organisations to have a look at the internal strengths and weaknesses of the
organisation so as to grab the opportunities available with the firm and confront with the
threats that are confronting their business. Based on these environmental strategies companies
should make strategies that provides good strategic position to the company. Since
Information has become the key to success in the modern day business hence companies must
consider Management Information System as a tool to gain strategic success (Levy, Weitz
and Grewal, 2012). Morrisons is a trading name of the company Wm Morrison Supermarkets
Plc. It is the 4th biggest supermarket chain in UK. Its market share in August 2017 was
around 10.14%. This report analyses the strategic position of the company in the market by
analysing the internal and external factors affecting their business. It also provides
assessment about the way in which the MIS is going to impact Morrisons. Along with this, it
also gives the idea about the benefits of implementation of MIS system.
SWOT analysis
Strengths
 Morrisons is having a large market base in United Kingdom with more than 500
stores in UK.
 This company is having a strong distribution and supply chain network.
 It deals in the business of large numbers of products that includes beverages, food,
clothes, music etc.
 It is having huge employee strength of more than 130,000 individuals (Morrisons,
2019).
 Its strong online business has helped them in increasing their sales.

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Weakness
 Morrisons does not much business outside United Kingdom like their major
competitors (Morrisons, 2019).
 In the past there were issues related to improper management of the farmer’s rights.
Opportunities
 Expanding in organic product’s market can be beneficial for the firm.
 There is huge scope of expansion outside Europe especially in the emerging cities of
Asia.
 Increasing demand for private labels can be provided by Morrisons (Morrisons,
2019).
Threats
 Competition from both online and offline competitors is continuously reducing their
market share.
 Change in policies and increase in taxes is reducing the chances of their business
success.
 E-commerce firms have increased their market base and hence the business of the
physical retail stores has come down (Morrisons, 2019).
Strategic analysis
It is essential for any organisation to analyse its external environment and its drivers for
change.
Strategic reasons and drivers for change
In order to analyse the strategic position of the company and understand the drivers of change
PESTLE analysis can be helpful. It helps in communicating the firm’s current position and
the changes that will be noticed due to implementation of MIS.
Political: The decisions made by the government of United Kingdom are supporting the
business of different organisations. On the other hand the decisions such as Brexit are putting
pressure on the business operations of the company as they will have to arrange their partners

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so as to grow as a business. This company is known for its supply chain management which
will get affected by Brexit. There is increasing in the taxations which is putting burden on the
revenues of the firm. The MIS system will help the company in streamlining its operations
and help in making decisions that is according to the changing political environment in the
country (Laudon and Laudon, 2016).
Economic: Whole Europe including Britain is facing economic challenges. In such an
environment it is crucial for the organisation to manage its business operations in an effective
manner. Along with this, it is also essential for the organisation to maintain the balance
between the expenditure and earning because people are not spending a lot on shopping. MIS
system will help the company in taking finance related decisions and at the same time it will
also help in managing the details about the financial transactions appropriately (Simon,
Karapetrovic and Casadesús, 2012). This is very much essential for accurate accounting.
Social: Society of UK has changed and so is its demand. People are looking for the online
mode of shopping as they do not have time for all these activities. After the recession of
2008-09, people’s purchasing power has reduced. At the same time, challenges such as
increased unemployment are also a matter of concern for Morrison as it is reducing their
chances of sales. MIS system will help in gathering information about the dynamics of the
society however large may be the data (Laudon and Laudon, 2011). Based on these data,
decisions related to segmentation and targeting can be done more accurately.
Technology: Technological advancements in the retail industry can be seen in every field of
operations. Supply chain management, HRM, logistics management, technology is benefiting
organisation in bringing smoothness to different operations. In future artificial intelligence is
going to take over the operation in the industry. MIS systems will help Morrisons in
providing data, based on which the automated technologies will work. The more the data
available with the firms, more is the chance that automated technologies can work (Gorla,
Somers and Wong, 2010).
Legal: There is a change in the legal environment of UK where the rules and regulations of
business has changed. This change can be noticed in the legislation related to Workplace
Pensions have changed. The consumer laws have been further strengthened hence supplying
quality products have become essential for the Morrisons so as to comply with all these rules.
MIS system will help in recording the incidents for future reference which can be helpful for
reducing the chances of facing any legal problems (Gorla, Somers and Wong, 2010).

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Environmental: People and Government of UK have become highly concerned about the
environment hence the company will have to change the business operations so as to reduce
the carbon footprints. Waste management and SCM can be upgraded by the help of MIS
technology as the data collected by the MIS will help in optimising the operations that is
helpful for reducing the amount of waste generated (Gorla, Somers and Wong, 2010).
MIS options considered
The major function of the MIS system is to provide actual and accurate data whenever
required. With the implementation of the MIS system, each department of Morrison will be
able to generate its own financial and operational data. Some of the MIS that can be used by
Morrison are:
Management reporting system: It is a system that is designed for reporting the finances and
operations of all the management level within the firm. Morrison’s middle level managers
can regularly generate reports where comparisons between past and current performances are
evaluated so as to analyse the growth to track down they in which they are performing (Green
Jr, et al. 2012).
Process Control: It is a system that monitors all the physical processes like sales, inventory
movements etc. Control system is regularly collecting data and analysing it to check any kind
of flaws in the way things are managed within the organisation. In the repetitive operations,
this system plays an essential role (Green Jr, et al. 2012).
Sales and Marketing: MIS helps in bringing effectiveness in marketing and sales of the
firm. It includes forecasting sales, managing distribution channels, implementing effective
advertisements and sales promotions, checking and tracking the advertisements being made
by the company as well as checking the promotions, pricing and discounts (Williams, 2018).
Inventory Control: This is very useful in the case of Morrison as it helps the organisation in
managing inventory which includes spoilage; inventory on hand, sales and theft. It helps
company in accessing the individual items that are getting low and needs to be restocked both
at individual retail location and at warehouse. It helps in tracking inventory movement inside
the warehouse and to store from warehouse (Williams, 2018).
Accounting and finance: This system calculates investments and assets of the company and
interprets the data for financial reporting for the functions like payrolls, state, local and

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federal taxes. Such systems also facilitates in daily uploading of routine transactions like
bank deposits and transfer, sales income and returns (Williams, 2018).
Human resource management system: It also helps in maintaining the data related to the
human resource management. All the data related to different stakeholders can be done with
the help of this MIS. Tracking and recruiting people is also made easy (Eason, 2014).
Impact Assessment
MIS impact on different variables is illustrated below:
Organisational Culture: The traditional ways of doing things will change at the same time
the way in which people behave within the organisation will also change. More technology
based behaviour will be promoted by the company (Mithas, Ramasubbu and Sambamurthy,
2011).
Management style: With the help of MIS, more people can be included in the decision
making process. This will shift the management style towards democratic style. MIS benefits
communication hence will improve the way things are communicated within the organisation
(Stair and Reynolds, 2013).
Staff roles and routines: MIS system helps in distributing roles and routines among the
staffs by proper scheduling. People are placed at right locations based on their previous
performance (Ageron, Gunasekaran and Spalanzani, 2012).
Benefits of Implementation
Strategic Benefit
MIS system helps in gaining competitive advantage over the rivals. This is done as strategic
benefits are being provided by the MIS system. Since MIS system brings effectiveness in
different processes hence it improves the functionality of the organisation. For instance, MIS
will help in making better decisions that are truly based on the facts and authenticated data.
This helps them in giving competitive advantage to the firm over the others (Ssekakubo,
Suleman and Marsden, 2011). This is because more appropriate decisions could be made
because of it and it gives them competitive advantage over the others.

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Productivity gains
Improves operational efficiency
MIS system helps in telling about the balance between the demand and supply of the
company. It also tells about the things that changes the path of the company from actual path.
It also assists about the ways in which operational efficiency can be achieved in the
organisation. For instance it tells about the inventory i.e. the time when the products will have
to be restocked. Since it tells about the actual time at which restocking is needed hence it
reduces the additional cost (DRURY, 2013). This helps in achieving productive gains.
Remove non value adding activities
MIS systems like process control helps in monitoring the overall process in different
departments hence it tells about the things that is actually not adding value to the products or
business. For example MIS system helps in checking the flaws in the process based on the
past data. This reduces the amount of mistakes that may occur in completing a task (Sampaio,
Saraiva and Domingues, 2012). This will eliminate the non-value adding activities such as
over processing to ensure quality in the overall process.
Links to cost leadership
Cost leadership is very much essential in the retail industry as it helps in attracting the people
towards their business. With the help of MIS system company can achieve efficiency in the
business process hence reduces the waste while ensuring the optimum utilisation of
resources. This reduces the overall cost of the operations and hence company can reduce the
cost of their products which enables them to achieve cost leadership (Robson, 2015).
Management benefits
Many kinds of forecasting related to environment and finance can be made with the help of
data accumulated by MIS hence company gets prepared for any change in environment
factors. For instance the data about the current changing economic environment will help the
company to forecast the future economic environment (Maier and Hadrich, 2011). This is
necessary for making future investment plans. Different kinds of data help the company to be
prepared for the upcoming challenges and hence give flexibility to the business operations in
the changing environment.
MIS system provides data that is accurate and less redundant. It also eliminates the data that
are irrelevant or cannot be used. Since higher numbers of filters can be applied while

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accessing the data hence more up-to-date information is provided by these systems. Along
with this, real time information is added in the data stack hence decisions that are real time
are made within the organisation (Noe, et al. 2017).
Operational benefits
As it can be seen in the earlier part also that IS system tells about the actual requirements of
the firm and hence resources can be allocated appropriately. The exact amount of resources
that will be required for performing the operations can be calculated beforehand hence there
is no wastage of resources possible within the organisation. MIS system helps the company in
managing the assets by suggesting the assets that is actually required by the firm (Barata and
Cunha, 2017). This allows in optimum utilisation of resources which directly gives
operational benefits to the organisation.
Functional and Support benefits
In different functions, different management Information systems are used. This supports the
operations being done in that department. Some of the functional areas where MIS extends its
support are:
HRM: MIS system helps in managing the records of the employees working within the
organisation. There are many private data of staffs that needs to be protected. This can be
done with the help of MIS. Apart from this, it also helps in scheduling which allows the
company to have adequate amount of people at the workplace for different operations. It also
helps in storing data related to performance of the employees which can be used at the time
of appraisals (Williams, 2018).
Marketing: MIS system allows the company to make marketing strategies that is based on
the actual data. It also helps in giving the exact figures about their target market and gives the
idea about their actual requirements. Based on these data company can do marketing
appropriately. For example it gives the details about the customers and the requirements
based on the feedbacks. This helps in changing their approach towards marketing and
company can also add things that attract people (Williams, 2018).
Service: The MIS system stores feedbacks from the previous customers at the time when
they received services from the firm. For instance if the customer at Morrison store finds
problems in the locating some products then they can add feedbacks. These feedbacks will

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help company in positioning employees at all the places hence assisting customers (Paré, et
al. 2015).
Intangible benefits
Since the decisions made by the organisation gets improved due to MIS hence both customers
and staffs gets benefited. For example if the feedbacks of the customers are processed and
better service is provided next time then it is able to satisfy the customers. On the other hand
since the HRM activities are performed in an appropriate manner hence the employee’s
morale also remains to be on the higher side.
Emergent Benefits
MIS helps in forecasting about business environment and operational needs. This helps in
proper utilisation of resources which can help the company in achieving sustainability. These
resources can be beneficial for the company in the long terms.
Recommendations and conclusion
It can be concluded that Morissons needs to implement MIS systems in different operational
units. This will help them in gaining competitive advantage over the rivals. Due to up-to-date
information provided by the MIS system, better decisions could be made by the organisation.
This helps in providing productivity gains, gives operational benefits. MIS system also helps
in providing intangible and emergent benefits which will help the firm in the long run.
It is recommended that Morrisons give regular training to their employees so that they can
easily work with these new MIS systems and bring productivity gains to the organisation. It
also essential that proper data security infrastructure is built within the organisation so as to
protect crucial data (Ung, 2013). Training should also be given in terms of proper utilisation
of systems by the employees so that they do not accidently give access to the hackers.

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Business Excellence, 28(3-4), pp.282-295.
DRURY, C.M., 2013. Management and cost accounting. Springer.
Eason, K.D., 2014. Information technology and organisational change. CRC Press.
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knowledge: A typology of literature reviews. Information & Management, 52(2), pp.183-199.

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