Datacom Group: Information Systems Development and Outsourcing

This case study examines Datacom Group Limited, an IT service company, and its need for effective information systems. It evaluates three alternative solutions: Management Information System (MIS), Decision Support System (DSS), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), assessing their viability and potential for competitive advantage. The report analyzes the importance of in-house development versus outsourcing components, detailing the benefits and drawbacks of each approach. Furthermore, it outlines acquisition, rollout, and management plan strategies for each of the three information system alternatives. The study concludes by recommending the most suitable information system for Datacom Group, considering factors such as cost, implementation complexity, and alignment with the company's goals and objectives. The case study emphasizes the importance of selecting an information system that can drive competitive advantage and long-term success.

CASE STUDY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Three alternative Information systems.........................................................................................1
Importance of in-house development and out sourcing components ..........................................3
Acquisition roll-out and management plan strategy for three alternatives..................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Datacom Group Limited is an Information technology service company that offers
management and consulting and engaged in the business of Software development. The
Company in founded in the year 1965 its founders were Dr Bernard Battersby and Paul
Hargreaves. The Datacom Group limited headquarters are in Wellington in New Zealand. The
project report will outline that there is need of information systems in DataCom Group limited.
The project report will appraise three alternative information systems solution and will explain
the viability of each alternative solutions. The Project report will define the importance of in-
house development and outsourcing components. The Project report will provide detail on
acquisition, rollout and will define the management plan strategy for the three alternatives.
Lastly the project report will outline the one best information system alternatives.
MAIN BODY
Three alternative Information systems
There are three options of information systems which can be used by Datacom Group
within the organisation which can help the organisation in gaining the competitive advantage and
success within the business. By acquiring the proper information system within the organisation
Datacom group can be benefited in various ways like it can improve its operations, sales,
management etc. which is essential for the organisation in achieving the goals and objectives for
the organisation which can also help in achieving the success of an organisation (Acquiring
Information System and Service, 2019). There are three alternative information solutions which
can be used by the organisation in achieving the success and competitive advantage are as
follows:
Management Information System: Management Information System (MIS) is referred as a
computer system which consists of software and hardware which serves as a backbone of the
company's operations. Its main is to gather data from various online systems analyse the gathered
data and report the data in order to aid the decisions of the management (Laudon and Laudon,
2016). MIS can be used by the tactical managers of Datacom Group with a purpose to monitor
the current performance of the organisation. MIS can help the organisation to analyse the input
with the routine algorithms which includes the aggregation, comparing and summarising the
results to gather the reports which can be used by the managers of the organisation to monitor,
control and predict the future performance of the organisation. So with the help of MIS Datacom
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Group can gain competitive advantage as this system provides a proper framework for analysing
the future and can take decisions accordingly. For example input from organisation's sales
system can be used to analyse the future trends of the products which are performing well for the
organisation and those products which are not performing well. So, this type of information can
be used by Datacom Group to increase the sales orders for the products which are performing
well and reduce the orders of their products and service which are not performing well. So, MIS
can help increasing the sales of the organisation which can help in gaining the competitive
advantage and success.
Decision Support System: Decision support system (DSS) is referred as set of computer
programs and data which is required to assist the decision making process within the
organisation (Guo and et.al., 2015). DSS use various inputs from the internal systems and
external systems and analyse those inputs in order to carry out the important decisions of the
organisation. It is the main objective of DSS to provide the solutions to the problems which are
unique for Datacom Group and they change frequently (Navarro-Hellín and et.al., 2016). So
implementing DSS within the organisation can help the organisation in solving problem which
are difficult to handle or to provide solution which can result in the competitive advantage and
success of the organisation. Also, DSS can help Datacom Group in answering following
questions:
 What would happen to the sales of the organisation if any new competitors enters in
markets?
 What will be the impact on the performance of the employees if the production of the
organisation is doubled?
So, these questions are very important for the organisation which needs to be answered in
order to gain the competitive advantage and success of the organisation. DSS allows the
company to use sophisticated statistical techniques and mathematical tools in order to provide
solution to various problems faced by the organisation. As Datacom Group is a IT service
company it may face number of technical and non technical problems which may be complicated
but DSS can provide proper solution to these problems through which competitive advantage can
be achieved.
Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence (AI) has become very common competitive tool
for the business there are various technologies that are embedded like deep learning, machine
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learning, artificial general intelligence, robotics, etc (Li and Du, 2017). So these various branches
of artificial intelligence can help the organisation to better management and consulting services
and which in return can gain competitive advantage for Datacom Group. In improving the
management and consulting service company can use better chatbots in order to communicate
with their customers, can use data analytics for making predictive recommendations for the
services offered etc can increase the value of the organisation and the service offered. Datacom
being a IT service company is the most feasible solution for the organisation which can enhance
its other service offerings like cloud computing ITO, Custom software development and payroll
service etc (Wallis and Paich, 2017). So, this information system technology can help in gaining
the competitive advantage and success for the company.
There are different cost involved in acquiring three alternatives as all three are different
and involves different costs. MIS does not prove to be more costly for the Datacom Group as its
implementation is not so complex task and have to address minimum issue while its
implementation. MIS information systems are available with multiple communication protocols
and it costs is not too high and can be easily affordable for the organisation with it
implementation. Choosing a right decision support system software can have a strong impact on
the organisation some of DSS software are costly for the organisation to avail but company can
minimise its cost of installation by maximising its benefits within the organisation after its
installation. Implementation of AI techniques within the organisation is very expensive for the
organisation as it includes the series of technologies which can prove expensive for the
organisation. So, it is important for the organisation in selecting a suitable information system for
the organisation which can bring benefits to the organisation and its cost of implementation can
be compensated easily.
Importance of in-house development and out sourcing components
In-house development simply means that conducting an activity within the organisation
and does not rely on outsourcing. In-House development has got various benefits for Datacom
Group as it can use it employees of the organisation in order to develop a proper information
system for the organisation which can help in meeting the objectives as well as competitive
advantages for the organisation. In-house development can give an organisation a complete
control over the delivery of the organisation's service as company can make use of full strength
of a team in order to build a proper information system for the company. In-house development
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can help the organisation to grow its employees knowledge about developing a system and entire
work flow and project can managed in a well planned manner. Also, one of the great importance
of in-house development of information system is that software can be easily written in order to
make it operate by using the business procedure which are already followed by Datacom Group.
Which can not be done with third party software which often requires change in to get it aligned
with company's business practice. In-house development can help the organisation make use of
its internal team to build a information system software which can be easily aligned with the
organisation as employees of the organisation are familiar with the business that an organisation
is in. Another importance of in-house development is that Datacom Group can control its annual
expenses as its maintenance cost can be easily managed by the organisation without paying the
external sources for maintaining the software of the organisation as they could charge high costs
for maintenance. Also, by using the in built team for developing a information system software is
that they could be able to produce a information system which help the organisation in achieving
the competitive advantage and can bring success for the organisation as they are aware of the
goals and objectives of the organisation. Also they can make the changes easily within the
developed software in the future and can add feature within the software based upon the service
trends which Datacom offers within the market place. In-house development also makes the long
term development of a software easier as this software is built by a team which comprises of the
employees of the organisation so they will know the what will be the ins and outs of the software
for the longer term. It can also result in the shorter turn-around time particularly if the Datacom
Group has experienced employees they would be able to create or provide the solution fast to the
problems which are faced while using the information system software. So, these are the
importance of in-house building of information system for Datacom Group.
There are various way and principles of acquiring an information systems for various
outside organisations and these various outsourcing components can also have huge importance
for the Datacom Group (Schniederjans, Schniederjans and Schniederjans, 2015). Outsourcing
components can prove less costly for the organisation as hiring a particular team which does a
specific job means that an organisation has to pay less for the development of the information
system for the organisation. Outsourcing teams has to perform a single task so, the money
invested will be less. Outsourcing components can build a information system software faster
than the in-house development as in most of the cases software companies already know what
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type of software is needed or suitable for the organisation so it can develop a software at faster
than in-house development. Also, it another importance is that if in case of urgency Datacom
Group needs to develop a information system it can be done by the outsourcing. It can also act as
time saving for the organisation and also organisation can ask for more resources for the large
works and can scale them down when a primary work is complete. It is obvious that organisation
is dealing with the experts of software development which can give them better results in a short
period of time. One of the major importance of outsourcing components is that Datacom group
does not have to hire the employees permanently for the organisation in building a software but
can have a contract for build a specific software and at the end can end the contract when the
work is complete. Also outsourcing components can develop a software for a particular focus
areas like Datacom Group want to improve it management and consulting service so, they can
develop a software for a particular purpose which can help in gaining the competitive advantage
and success for the organisation (Gurung and Prater, 2017). Another major importance of
outsourcing components is that it can prevent the organisation from investing it in the
infrastructure to a build a information system so it can save the costs of the organisation as it is
the outsourcing partners which take the responsibility for performing the same function for the
organisation. Outsourcing components can help the organisation to achieve the goals and
objective within the short periods, with higher quality, and efficiency which can help Datacom
Group in improving its services and achieving the competitive advantage and long term success
for the organisation.
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Acquisition roll-out and management plan strategy for three alternatives
Decision Support System
The Decision support system will be implementing in Datacom Group limited by using
following strategies -
Firstly the Company will decompose the project in easy manageable parts. The Company
will do pro-type utilization. The Final system reactions to a prototype system may be different.
The Company will do testing of these concepts before extend them at larger level. The Company
will use revolutionist approach. It is being done for the continuous improvement. The Company
will keep the simplicity of the solutions (Nestorovic and Radicevic, 2018). To encourage the
utilization and avoid the discouragement form the users. The company will acquired the support
base. System is not initiated by the users the utilization model is not situated by an advancement.
The users have lower feasibility with sophisticated models (Osigbemeh, Okezie, and Inyiama,
2017). The users are getting involved in formulation and implementation of the model.
The Company would obtain the user's consent. The system will be imposed by the
mangers to the users. The DataCom Group limited will obtain managerial support. The Managers
will be providing training to make employees in order to indulged them with the system software
(David and Suganthi, 2017). The The initial training program will need substantial re-formation.
Company will provide dynamic assistance in order ton operate system better. The Company will
allowing the voluntary utilization.
Management information System
The DataCom Group limited is following these steps to implement the Management Information
system plan -
 First step would be implementation of plan. The Company would be creating the master
schedule for implementing the activities. The Company will set timelines for critical and
non critical activities (Guo,Ngai, Yang, and Liang, 2015). The Company will identify the
bottlenecks and their solutions. The company will communicate about the plan with their
employees.
 The Company will organize the MIS Department. The organizing of MIS department
start before the actual implementation process begins.
 The third step is company will do selection and procurement of Hardware by using
following criteria -
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1. First they will prepare a vendors list after analysing the vendor management experience
in the organization premises.
2. The Company will prepare the REP to implement hardware systems including the format,
specifications, performance expectation and warranty.
3. The Company will evaluate the REP process. The company will perform preliminary
check in which basic errors were identified (Guo and et.al., 2015). The Company will
track record and evaluate the service quality of the vendors and will provide guaranty.
 The fourth step would be procurement of Software. The new Management informations
system will be implemented and create an assumptions for operating system in an
organizations.
 The fifth step is creating the database. The Management information system will
implement separate application software.
 The sixth step would be transition to the next system.
Artificial Intelligence
For implementing the artificial intelligence in the DataCom Group limited the company will
follow this strategy -
 Firstly the company will be designing the software. The designers apply the specialized
learning and experience to come up with the alternative solutions (Gurung,and Prater,
2017).
 The second step would be software testing. The Company will test the prototype and
repetitive manual tests.
 The third step will be GUI testing. The Company will arrange the test designer to perform
humongous tasks like manual developing test cases and identifying the conditions in
order to done execution of test (Kar, 2015). The Company will be using artificial
intelligence in Strategic decision making.
 Lastly the Company will be do automatic Code generation and assist the programming.
The Artificial intelligence is an intelligent programming assistant.
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The best information alternative is Artificial intelligence for the DataCom Group limited.
The Artificial intelligence is result in fewer employees and provide cost efficiency to the
DataCom Group limited (Fidan and Ozkanand Calikusu, 2016). Artificial intelligence make
work easier without waste of time. The Artificial intelligence helps to minimise the errors. The
artificial intelligence provide good customer service delivery.
CONCLUSION
The Conclusion is being drawn from the above project report is that Management
Information System is the computer system that is consists of software and hardware which
serves as a backbone for the company's operations. It is being concluded that the Decision
support system is the set of computer programs and data which is required to assist the decision
making process within the workplace. It is been concluded that artificial intelligence make work
easier in the organisation and provide deep learning and machine learning.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Conference on Science Technology Engineering & Management (ICONSTEM) (pp.
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Fidan, U., Ozkan, N. and Calikusu, I. 2016, October. Clustering and classification of
dermatologic data with Self Organization Map (SOM) method. In 2016 Medical
Technologies National Congress (TIPTEKNO) (pp. 1-4). IEEE.
Guo, Z and et.al., 2015. An RFID-based intelligent decision support system architecture for
production monitoring and scheduling in a distributed manufacturing
environment. International journal of production economics. 159. pp.16-28.
Guo, Z., Ngai, E., Yang, C. and Liang, X. 2015. An RFID-based intelligent decision support
system architecture for production monitoring and scheduling in a distributed
manufacturing environment. International journal of production economics .159. pp.16-
28.
Gurung, A. and Prater, E., 2017. A research framework for the impact of cultural differences on
IT outsourcing. In Global sourcing of services: strategies, issues and challenges. (pp.
49-82).
Kar, A.K. 2015. A hybrid group decision support system for supplier selection using analytic
hierarchy process, fuzzy set theory and neural network. Journal of Computational
Science. 6. pp.23-33.
Laudon, K. C. and Laudon, J. P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
Li, D. and Du, Y., 2017. Artificial intelligence with uncertainty. CRC press.
Navarro-Hellín, H and et.al., 2016. A decision support system for managing irrigation in
agriculture. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 124. pp.121-131.
Nestorovic, M. and Radicevic, T.D. 2018. MACHINE ECONOMY. Economic and Social
Development: Book of Proceedings, pp.204-210.
Osigbemeh, M.S., Okezie, C.C. and Inyiama, H.C. 2017. Performance Metrics of various
Topologies of a Feed Forward Error-Back Propagation Neural Network. Journal of
Engineering and Applied Sciences. 12. pp.94-102.
OUTSOURCING
Schniederjans, M. J., Schniederjans, A. M. and Schniederjans, D.G., 2015. Outsourcing and
insourcing in an international context. Routledge.
Wallis, L. and Paich, M., 2017, December. Integrating artifical intelligence with anylogic
simulation. In 2017 Winter Simulation Conference. (WSC). (pp. 4449-4449). IEEE.
Online
Acquiring Information System and Service. 2019. [Online] Available through :
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/information-system/Acquiring-information-systems-
and-services>
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