Information Systems in Organizations: A Case Study of Barclays

This report explores the role of information systems within organizations, using Barclays Bank as a case study. It examines the information needs of different functional areas, compares various information systems, investigates current trends in using information systems to solve business problems, and evaluates the suitability of different systems for specific organizational functions. The report also analyzes alternative methods for solving problems related to information systems management, including the system life cycle approach.

Information System In Organization

Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
LO1 understand information needs within different function areas of organization:................4
P1.1: Evaluate the information needs of the different functional areas of the organization:.4
LO2 Be able to compare information system:...........................................................................6
P 2.1 Describe different types of information system:...........................................................6
P 2.2 Investigate the current trends in using Information system applications to solve
business problems:...............................................................................................................10
P 2.3 Evaluate the suitability systems for different functional areas of an organization:....11
LO3 Be able to use information system to produce management information:......................13
P 3.1 Use an information system to generate valid, accurate and useful information for a
given problem:.....................................................................................................................13
P 3.2 Evaluate alternative methods of solving the problem:................................................14
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................16
References:...............................................................................................................................17

Introduction:
The information system in the organization is a collection of the software, hardware,
information, networks, processes, communication and different HR processes. I select the
organization from the United Kingdom is Barclays. It is a banking and financial organization
of UK. The further report of the information system in the organization includes the complete
research about the organization including its needs in different functional areas.
The first part of the report will include the functional areas of the organization. These
functional areas will discuss in brief in the second part with the types of the information
system. The solving methods of the issues of the organization will also part of this section.
Evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of the information system will discuss in this
section. The last part will contain the solutions to different problems with the use of
alternative methods.

LO1 understand information needs within different functional areas
of the organization:
P1.1: Evaluate the information needs of the different functional areas of the
organization:
Evaluation the information of an organization includes different fields of the organization.
Here I select Barclay organization for the evaluation in the current project. It is a financial
service company based in the United Kingdom. It was founded 327 years ago in the year
1690 and the headquarter of the company is in London, UK. It is the largest banking and
financial service company in the world that has more than one lakh members in over 40
countries. Barclays Company also has a part in the field of retail banking with investment
banking and wealth management. The Barclays bank started the joint stock with the name of
Barclays and Co. The company invest in US and Qatar and listed in the stock exchange in
those countries. The company revenue in 2017 is more than £21 billion and the total equity is
more than £66 billion. The Barclays has three main divisions as Barclaycard, Balclay
Investment Bank and Barclays Wealth. In the year of 2007, the Barclay Bank announced the
largest bank of Netherlands. The Barclay has more than 4500 branches in 55 countries that
also provide the banking service through the post office. The current CEO of the company is
Jes Staley. We need to discuss four major points of the organization for creating the complete
report. These are:
Manufacturing and Production: these two points are the main factor of the company that
also includes the relationship with the employees and specialist. The company involves in
every field of life from food to drinks, electrical, machinery, chemical and others, as in the
role of corporate manufacturing bank. The company focus on the risk of the supply chain,
sustainability and manufacturing of high value. These points are completely suitable
according to the current environment. The manufacturing clients of the company take the
advantages like the opportunity of the regular networking; grow the sector of finance and
others. The Barclay also offers the manufacturer in the field of asset finance, cash
management, corporate lending and working capital (Barclayscorporate, 2018).
The production of the organization contains the fields of cash management, finance, risk
solution and trade solution. Each of production field contains different areas of production of
the Barclay. The production of risk solution includes the Bank corporate with the interest rate
and foreign exchange. The production of the Barclay is also in the area of digital baking
service, that contain the internet banking, service of virtual account management, iPortal of
Barclay and the file gateway (Barclayscorporate, 2018).
Sales and Marketing: the sales department interact with the client to develop the business
with the skills of employees and understand the products according to the market. The
Barclay also fund in launch a store of Ducati in Manchester and Preston. On the basis of
customer experience, sales report, the range of criteria and appearance of branches, Barclay
has awarded as the best bank in Portugal. The marketing team create the relationship with the

clients for the leads the business at a new level. The developers of the accounting department
work between the relationship and sales management as they increase the sale of the product
of the company. Complete the market chain to complete the sales of the organization. The
clients of the organization understand the development of the market and offer the execution
and risk management to the asset class. The Barclay Company also launch a marketing
campaign in the UK that represent the services and products in an easy way for the
customers.
Finance and accounting: the finance team helps to the managers of investment to mitigate a
risk. This risk can be related to the wealth and investment. The team of finance works to
resolve the issues of the budgets, for the planning for the information system, risk assessment
and for the regulatory compliance. The company is also responsible for the taxation system of
its customers and employees who pay the corporate tax and VAT (an indirect tax). Company
manage the lengthy and complex transactions.
The accounting term is important for the profits of the employees as they share their payment
in the benefits of IAS 19 employee scheme and (PIRC) pension investment research
consultant. The company need to manage the capital account balance for the different
regulatory adjustment of regulatory accounts. Barclay organization also has a partnership in
different area like, technology, accounts, marketing, telecommunication and IT sector with
such companies as, Microsoft and Google. The company manage the accounts of each
customer and employee with different operations and performances. Also, manage the funds
by increasing the technologies and various features,
Human Resource: the department of human resource manage various operations of the
organization like hiring new employees, manage the environment of the company providing
different types of functionalities. HR department selects the proper candidate for the different
type of task as well as provide training to them with appropriate knowledge, increase their
skills with their performance. The HR department also focuses on different issues that occur
in most of the organization like, disability, multigenerational, gender, multicultural, LGBT
and others. Human resource department also finds the future risks of the organization and
make the environment to manage the process of risk assessment. HR department manages the
pay slips of each department from pay the salary to incentive and appraisal. The department
provides the basic training of the rules and regulation of the company to the new joining.

LO2 Be able to compare information system:
P 2.1 Describe different types of information system:
There are different features of a business that is important to understanding the role of
information system in the business. First, the basic features that we discussed above are
finance, accounting, human resource, manufacturing, sales and marketing and production.
The other features that are different from the department of the organization are like,
requirement, operations, controls and decision.
 Requirements: it includes a network system with fast speed and has the capacity to
store the files with their workstation. The information system should handle the
different issues of the information system.
 Operations: include different operations like employees record, payroll; prepare the
documents of the employees and the process of a credit card. These operations can be
performed by the graphic designer or the other employees.
 Controls: manage and control the activities of the employees with the core function of
the information system. The security issues can be occurring during the payment
system by the customers, and then the control system manages the issues.
 Decision: the higher authorities of the company can get the information from the
system, that is a help in making a decision and this decision can improve the
management process more effectively (Markgraf, 2018).
The four basic function of the business that includes the terms like, sales and marketing,
finance and accounting, human resources and manufacturing and production. These basic
functions are disused in last part regarding the Barclay organization.
A business has some basic entities that play important role in the growth of the business. The
entities are like suppliers, customers, employees, payment/invoice, service and products.
Suppliers are the core element of the business. They supply the products to the organization
and then organization increase the sell by selling these products. In the Barclay, IT suppliers
are the main who provide the cybersecurity to the organization.
Customers are the key element of the Barclay Company who increase the sales and products
of the organization. Employees make a relationship with the customers for the branding of
the company.
Employees of the Barclay have the aim to develop the world-class platform and provide the
solution to the customers and clients. The shareholders of the company also improve the
values of the organization.
Payment/Invoice: the payment system is so easy in the Barclay. It completes with the vendor
ID, before delivery of goods and services. The invoice of the order with the order number,
contact code submits to the channel for the entity of supply. Barclay uses the two methods of

payment that is Internet Protocol (IP) and GPRS techniques. These techniques make more
secure and faster payment system.
Service/Products: Barclay provides the best services to its customers and users. The 24/7
helpline always available for the user as well as the contact us section on each website of the
Barclay in each country is also available to providing the services to the users.
Enhance the different process of the business by increasing some term that is discussed
below:
 Automation of manual processes: the automation process has different advantages
like,
o Quality and consistency
o Time-saving
o Metric Visibility
o Improve the efficiency of operation
o Reliability and Governance
 The changing of the flow of information is improving the business with the use of
new technologies. There are five tools to improve the flow of information in the
organization.
o Change the delivery methods of the products and data
o Use some paid and free tools on the smartphone like GPS, camera,
accelerometers.
o Confirm that each employee has the smartphones
 Replacement of the sequential process with the simultaneous activity is used for
change the environment of the organization.
 The transformation of the business work is like to change the pattern of work or to
hire an expert in the management of business transformation. The transformation area
of a business like Barclay is customer service, finance and order & quoting. Follow
some steps for the transformation of work of business like:
o Planning
o Execution
o Fail or fly
o Attributes for the transformation of management (Alder, 2018)
 Drive new business models with the installation of different techniques and services
in the Barclay. These techniques and services should be according to market
standards. Also, install the models to change the platform of business and for
disrupting the data with the change in the economics.
 Managing a business and firm hierarchies in the organization like Barclay to manage
the top level of the hierarchy and the middle managers with the manager of the first
level and the employees (Bass, 2018).

A business has different groups of management that serve by the system with the use of
transaction processing system and system for the intelligence of business. The transaction
system deals with the transaction activity of the organization like payroll, the decision of
credit and receipt of cash. Another system is business intelligence system deals with the
information delivery of the management during the activity of decision making.
Improve the performance of the system with the use of some tools like,
 Engage with the people
 Identify and delete the internal roadblocks
 The practice of leadership with high impact
 Align the metrics
 Use the training and strategy of development (business, 2017)
The collaboration and the teamwork are important to achieve the goals with the sharing of
other team members. It includes the process of globalization, decentralization, decision
making and increasing of jobs to achieve the goals of the Barclay organization.
The role of the information system in the organization system is to analyse the system,
modelling the system and decision support to the system. It helps to the management by
providing the data and the status of the records. MIS also helps to set the goals, strategic
planning with their implementing (RS,S, 2014).
Achieve the goals of the organization as follows:
 Optimise Revenue: a strategy of the management related to the pricing, demand,
inventory, and channel distribution. It uses the demand modelling, pricing
optimization and the behaviour of the consumer.
 Improve the satisfaction of the customer with developing the service communities;
provide the multicultural support, data of the customer survey and with customer
reviews.
 Increase the customer retention with the good treatment, appreciate the customer and
ask for the feedback from the customers.
 Identify and retain the most profitable customer with analysing of customer data and
use of the CRM tool for the prediction of future revenue. Also, need to track the cost
of the products or services and make familiar with the life cycle of customers.
 Achieve the goals of increasing the sales of the Barclay organization. There are
different methods to increase the sales like.
o Set a program for initiate level
o Encourage the staff for upselling
o Create different between the regular and other customers
o Distribute the free products as a sample to the customers (Ward, 2017)
E-business process on the internet that includes the complete process like, buy the products,
selling the products, supply and service with the process of payment, manage the control of
production, collaborating with the business partners, sharing of information and others.

Conduct the commercial transaction online, is related to the e-commerce. Sell and buy a
product online by a user is the use of the e-commerce. Different types of e-commerce are
like, sell of physical goods, services of e-retailors, digital products and others.
Use the electronic media or communication device, internet and computers to provide the
services and information to the citizens are refers to the e-government. It builds the external
interactions, connecting the people and improves the process of government.
Different types of information system:
o The system of transaction process: provide the process of the store, collect, cancel and
display the transaction.
o The system of management information: collect the data and information from the
process of the transaction and create the report for the higher managers to resolve the
routine problem.
o Decision support system: generate the statistical projection same as the data models
with the process of decision making and working and analysing the process of data.
o The system of experts and neutral networks: it is a system of the knowledge base, that
design to produce and analyse the data.
o Executive information system: it helps to operate the organization through the process
of analyzing the data. This process helps to the senior management for design the
information system (Cress, 2009).

P 2.2 Investigate the current trends in using Information system
applications to solve business problems:
There are different types of problems in an organization including workplace and employees.
The problems include routing, security, timetable, recruiting and others. Communication is
also a major problem in an organization. The disappearing act is also a problem that is related
to the attendance of the employees. The timing issues are also a major problem for the
organization. Data is completely secure in the Barclay Company and the leadership is also
better.
The model of Michael Porter is used to analyse the profit and alternativeness of the
organization. It includes the competitive rivalry, power of supplier, the power of buyer, the
threat of substitution and threat of new entry (Porter, 2018).
Wal-Mart is an American retail organization and a chain of department stores with grocery
stores. It is the number one organisation in the world in retails. The organization use different
technology for e-commerce, e-market in the organization. Various people work in the
organization at the different places.
The alternative of the product promotion is including the sales promotion and cash back
offers. The loyalty schemes launch for the regular customers and it increases the payment of
the sales staff. Barclay is also provided with the offers for the customers on the loan services,
interest rates, EMI and others as the substitute for the promotional offers. After launch the
promotional offers, customers have choices to select the platform from where they can buy
the product.
Healthy competition is related to the product quality and its delivery that continue to try to
improve for making better than competitors. Change the technology in the banking system is
a way to improve the service as the Barclay can provide better service with the use of
different tools and techniques like, provide phone banking and other services (banking
supervision, 2017).

P 2.3 Evaluate the suitability systems for different functional areas of an
organization:
Transaction processing system
Advantage:
 It is a system that works on real-time processing or Batch time processing.
 It reduces the time for order cycle time, processing time, and lead time in the
organization.
 It increases the organization productivity with customer satisfaction
Disadvantage:
 It needs a large amount of cost for the setup.
 It contains less standard formats.
 It has software and hardware incompatibility
Management Information System
Advantage:
 It offers integrated data system in the organization.
 It offers information timely.
 It accomplished in customizing reports
Disadvantage:
 It gives some time inaccurate information
 Dissemination and Retrieval is depended on technology software and hardware
Decision supports system
Advantage:
 It supports real-time testing which is inexpensive testing.
 It reduces the transportation costs, operating expenses.
 It also supports Cloud computing
 It decreases error in the data entry.
Disadvantage:
 It contains overload information system.
 It requires training before operating in the organization.
 It needs development cost.
 It Overemphasis on decision making
Executive information system
Advantage:

 It executed in the organization at the upper level.
 It analysis the current trends of the organization.
 It enhanced the thinking power and helps to make a decision.
 It is a contribution to strategic control flexibility.
Disadvantage:
 It faces difficultly during data storage.
 System manage is difficult to process.
 The implementation process is difficult and costly.
 The system may become large, slow, and hard to manage.
Data Warehouse System
Advantage:
 It gives low risk and low exposure.
 It gives faster ROI.
 It only focused on enable approach
 It provides faster delivery.
Disadvantage:
 It requires multiple team coordination in the organization.
 It needs to assimilate incremental data marts.

LO3 Be able to use the information system to produce management
information:
P 3.1 Use an information system to generate valid, accurate and useful
information for a given problem:
Management of the information system is not always a solution, sometimes it can be a
problem for some company. There are different problems like goals, maintenance, usability
and changes in the need of clients. Take a problem, Usability that is not allowed to use in an
organization by its employees. The system of management information may fail because of
the complication of the interface of the usability. Check the issues before generating the
result and generate the reports (Markgraf, 2018).
Reduce the cost of products and services by the Barclay banking system. That is helpful for
the system of the company because the sales would increase as the cost reduces. The
deduction of the cost system is also a part of the alternative of the production system because
this could be a part of a scheme for the new customers.
Improve the customer satisfaction of the Barclay organization by using different tools and
techniques like,
 Treat the customer with real efforts. Keep the integrity and promises.
 Measure the customer satisfaction and monitor the customer satisfaction on social
media.
 Set the clear expectations and try to exceed them
There are different strategies which can improve the advantages of competition among the
different companies in the market like:
 The strategy of cost leadership
 Strategy of differentiation
 Innovative strategy
 The strategy of operational effectiveness
 Techniques based strategy
 The advantage of adaptability competitive (Garfinkle, 2018)
The impact of activities of operation management in the organization is on the scanning and
learning the process. The raw material of an organization can impact easily with the operation
term of the management. the impact applies to the collection of data, analysis process of data
and survey of the customers of the organization.
Improve the marketing with the use of different methods and tools that is also helpful in the
promotion planning, increasing the sales and operation activities with finance and production.
The tool and techniques are like:
 Learn from the competitors and align the strategy for the customers

 Get the testimonials before buying something or spending money on the products
 Measure the marketing content and research in the market to find the users
requirement
 Create a plan for the customers that is according to the budget
 Analyse the competition of the market and provide the value to the consumers
 Create a relationship with the customers and retailers (George, 2018)
P 3.2 Evaluate alternative methods of solving the problem:
The alternative methods for solving problems include the more information to store and
provide the solutions. This solution can be eliminated and meet with the opposition. The
methods include the steps like
 Identify the issues: identify the issues like, what is happing and how and when and
why is happing.
 Defining the goals or cause of the problems: find the real cause of the problem and
verify the impression of the problem.
 Access the alternatives: Barclay Company finds a different solution to the problem
and selects a method to solve the problem.
 Select the solution: select the best approach for the problem and plan to implement it.
 Execution of the solution: change the problem with the appropriate solution.
 Evaluation: end the problem with the solution (McNamara, 2018).
Select an appropriate method as the alternative of information system management. The
method is system life cycle that supports the organization in every stage. Barclay is a large
organization that easily supports the system life cycle. The system life cycle includes the cost
estimate, efficiently, work effectively terms in it. There are different stages of the system life
cycle as follows:
 Analysis: it gathers the requirement and defines in the system with the evaluation and
efficiency.
 Design: design is derived from the user requirement including the plans, operating
systems, issues of security, hardware and communication with programming.
 Build: create the design specification with developing the system using the
components. To build the system, it is required to train the user and test the system.
 Implement: install and implement the system with the different phases.
 Maintenance and Operation: maintain and monitor the system regular.
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of the alternative system life cycle.
Advantages:
 Built-in quality
 Management of configuration
 Design and analysis process
 Easy to learn

Disadvantages:
 Paper-based
 Costly and rigid approach
 Take time to deliver the project (Migwimwangi, 2012)

Conclusion:
Successfully achieve the user requirement related to the Barclay organization. Achieve the
information in the first part of the different functional area of the Barclay. Different types of
information system described in second part with the investigation process. It includes the
evolution of the different functional area of the business problem. The suitability term of the
information system regarding the organization is also discussed in this part. The last section
of the report includes the alternative methods of the current information system with the
solving methods.

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