Information System for Managers: Solution and Case Study Analysis

This document presents a comprehensive solution to an Information System for Managers assignment. It includes detailed discussions on various topics such as the application of innovative technologies, steps for enterprise system success, and the improvement of supply chains and customer relationships, using Walmart as a case study. The assignment also explores the pros and cons of outsourcing information system development, and identifies major threats to organizational information security. The solution provides recommendations for improving business processes, maintaining customer relationships, and protecting sensitive data. The document incorporates references to relevant academic literature supporting the analysis and recommendations.

Running head: INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MANAGERS
Information System for Managers
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1
INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MANAGERS
Table of Contents
Discussion Item 2.1.............................................................................................................2
Discussion Item 7.1.............................................................................................................2
Discussion Item 8.1.............................................................................................................3
Discussion Item 9.1.............................................................................................................5
Discussion Item 10.1...........................................................................................................7
References............................................................................................................................9

2
INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MANAGERS
Discussion Item 2.1
The application of the innovative technologies and system is a difficult task but the
challenge needs to be overcome for the development of the information system. The information
system are developed by third part development team or purchased from the software
development companies and applied in the business systems. The data in the information system
are protected with proprietary rules but the information system cannot be protected because it is
developed by the third party individual (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). There are some limit faced by
the business company for gaining the competitive advantage from the information system. There
are several advantages of the organization but the risk needs to be eliminated for its application.
The business also finds problem in choosing the information system and the functionality
required for the improvement of the current business process of the organization.
The challenges can be overcome with the evaluation of the current business process and
analyzing the requirement of the organization. The implementation of the enterprise resource
planning and implementation of the customer relationship management helps in establishment of
a relationship between the suppliers, customers and the business (Kim & Peterson, 2017). DSS
Decision support system can also be used for redesign the business models and improving the
information system for accessing the customer needs and the trends.
Discussion Item 7.1
The steps and the safeguards that can be used for making an enterprise system successful
are listed below:
Process requirement – For the deployment of the innovative information system the
employees in the business organization should be able to eliminate the internal bureaucracy and

3
INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MANAGERS
reduce the communication gap between the other employees working in the organization
(Ghobakhloo & Tang, 2015). The political influence should be kept aside and the common goods
should be grouped.
Resource requirement – The skills and knowledge of the employees are important for the
success of the information system and the organization should have enough employees for the
deployment of the systems.
Requirement of risk tolerance – The uncertainty and the unwillingness can negatively
impact the new system and thus a risk tolerance must be applied for handling the uncertainty and
mitigate the risk at the preliminary stage of the deployment (Laudon & Laudon, 2015).
Discussion Item 8.1.
The ideas for the improvement of the supply chains and strengthening the customer
relationship should be identified and new innovation strategies should be applied for the
development of the enterprise information system. For the ecommerce business the management
of the customer relationship is the key factor for the success of the business organization. The
information system must be designed aligning the business requirement (Wang, Wang & Liu,
2016). The ecommerce business Walmart is selected for discussing the supply chain and the
customer relationship maintained by the organization.
Key Characters
The key characteristics for maintaining the customer relationship involves the technology
for organizing, automating and synchronizing the market, sales and customer service with the
information system developed for the organization. The customer relationship model is used for
the management of the interaction of the company with the future and the current customer. The

4
INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MANAGERS
main focus of the company is on creating values for the targeted group of customers (Flanagin et
al., 2014). With the application of the CRM the company gains competitive advantage that
provides similar type of product and services to the consumers.
Organizational Facts
Walmart operates its business by creating a link between the manufacturer and the
customer. A huge amount of purchase is made from the manufacturer and it is distributed to the
customer. There are different distribution centers, supercenters and neighborhood market that are
used by Walmart and it needs and information system for the management of the business
activity. The records of the business should be recorded in the information system for reducing
the effort of the employees and automating the business process.
Situational Facts
The deployment of the information system for the ecommerce business helps in
management of the supply chain by recoding the point of sale data, payment of the supplier,
product information, etc. The data about any of the product can be fetched from the information
system and the needs of manual work can be eliminated (Cui & Pan, 2015). The information
system should be designed to record the primary and the secondary actives of the business such
as inbound and the outbound logistics, operations, marketing and sales, services, etc. The
inbound logistics should contains features such as management of the vendor, electronic data
interchange, the outbound logistics should contain features of cross docking and hub and spoke
distribution (Ahmadi et al., 2016). The operations can contain the features such as maintaining
the records for discounts and the customer information.
Cause-Effects

5
INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MANAGERS
The implementation of the information system causes the current business to handle more
number of customer and develop the customer relationship. Walmart can focus on the current
business operation for improving its business policy and outsource the development team for
maintaining the information system (DeLone & McLean, 2016). The cost for running the
business can be reduced and thus it helps in gaining more profit and gain competitive advantage
over the companies providing similar product and services in the market. The information system
should help to predict the future needs and forecast the demands
Opportunities
There are different opportunities for the development of the information system and
application in the current business process of the organization (Alam et al., 2016). The
information system can be designed and new functionality can be added such as implementation
of the accounting software for management of the accounts records and ERP system for
recording the payroll and the employee salary for increasing the functionality of the information
system.
Recommendations
It is recommended that for the development and the implementation of the information
system in the current business of Walmart an analysis should be made on the current business
policy. Different functionality should be added in the information system such as real time
update of the stock information and maintaining the records of the supply for updating the
customers with accurate data. The transparency in the business can be maintained with the
information system for improvement of the customer relationship.

6
INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MANAGERS
Discussion Item 9.1.
Pros of outsourcing
Expertise and swiftness – vendors are selected depending on their expertise and they have
more number of resources and expertise for completing the development with better quality and
short time duration.
Sharing of the risk – The outsourcing helps in identification of the different factors for
analyzing the risk and shifting the responsibility towards the vendor selected for the development
of the information system (Hashim, 2015). A special vendor should be selected for planning and
mitigating the different risk factors.
Reduced recruitment and the operational cost – The needs for hiring the in house experts
are eliminated and thus reducing the operational cost.
Concentrating on the core components – the outsourcing of the information system
development helps the business organization to strengthen the current business policy and
business process and eliminates the needs for concentrating on the supporting process (Chung,
Boutaba & Hariri, 2014).
Cons of outsourcing
Risk of confidential data expose – the enrollment of the HR, recruitment service and
payroll the confidential data of the organization can be exposed and accessed by the third party
vendor causing risk for the organization.

7
INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MANAGERS
Hidden Cost – Some hidden cost may rise during the operation of the information such as
cost of contract for communicating with international boundaries and it can cause a serious threat
for the organization (Flanagin et al., 2014).
Lack in customer focus – The vendor handles multiple organization at a time and thus
they might not be able to give complete focus on the organization for aligning the needs of the
organization.
Synchronizing deliverables – The selection of the right vendor is important for
outsourcing the common areas of problems such as delivery of the information system in right
time. The factors should be regulated inside the organization.
For taking an effective decision for the development of the information system the budget
and available resources of the organization should be analyzed for the development of the
information system (Kim & Peterson, 2017). The availability of the technical experts depends on
outsourcing of the vendor for the development of the information system.
Discussion Item 10.1.
The biggest threats identified for the organization’s information security are the
information of the customer, employees and organizational information. The email information
and the privacy policy should be protected for mitigation of the potential liabilities of the
organization.
For the protection of the IT against the threats the following steps should be followed:
1. Identification and prioritization of the confidential informations – The information should be
categorized depending on the values and confidentiality (DeLone & McLean, 2016). The

8
INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MANAGERS
customer and the employee information must be protected and the unstructured information
should be protected on the basis of the department.
2. Analysis of the current flow of information and risk assessment – The current
workflow in the business should be analyzed for the identification of the confidential
information. The major business process of organization should be identified for determining the
leakage risk and the participants should be identified (Hashim, 2015).
3. Determination of the usage, access and the information distribution policies – The type
of content and the enforcement action should be defined and the distribution policies should be
enforced.
4. Implementation and monitoring the enforcement system – The enforcement policy
should be monitored and the confidential information should be verified and control points
should be created for the prevention of the threats.

9
INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MANAGERS
References
Ahmadi, H., Nilashi, M., Almaee, A., Soltani, M., Zare, M., Sangar, A. B., ... & Alizadeh, M.
(2016). Multi-level model for the adoption of hospital information system: a case on
Malaysia. Journal of Soft Computing and Decision Support Systems, 3(1), 61-74.
Alam, M. G. R., Masum, A. K. M., Beh, L. S., & Hong, C. S. (2016). Critical factors influencing
decision to adopt Human Resource Information System (HRIS) in hospitals. PloS
one, 11(8), e0160366.
Chung, K., Boutaba, R., & Hariri, S. (2014). Recent trends in digital convergence information
system. Wireless Personal Communications, 79(4), 2409-2413.
Cui, M., & Pan, S. L. (2015). Developing focal capabilities for e-commerce adoption: A resource
orchestration perspective. Information & Management, 52(2), 200-209.
DeLone, W. H., & McLean, E. R. (2016). Information systems success
measurement. Foundations and Trends® in Information Systems, 2(1), 1-116.
Flanagin, A. J., Metzger, M. J., Pure, R., Markov, A., & Hartsell, E. (2014). Mitigating risk in
ecommerce transactions: perceptions of information credibility and the role of user-
generated ratings in product quality and purchase intention. Electronic Commerce
Research, 14(1), 1-23.
Ghobakhloo, M., & Tang, S. H. (2015). Information system success among manufacturing
SMEs: case of developing countries. Information Technology for Development, 21(4),
573-600.

10
INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MANAGERS
Hashim, J. (2015). Information communication technology (ICT) adoption among SME owners
in Malaysia. International Journal of Business and Information, 2(2).
Kim, Y., & Peterson, R. A. (2017). A Meta-analysis of Online Trust Relationships in E-
commerce. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 38, 44-54.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2015). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital
Firm Plus MyMISLab with Pearson eText--Access Card Package. Prentice Hall Press.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2016). Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
Wang, W. T., Wang, Y. S., & Liu, E. R. (2016). The stickiness intention of group-buying
websites: The integration of the commitment–trust theory and e-commerce success
model. Information & Management, 53(5), 625-642.