Information System Analysis: Wheelies' Case Study Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the information systems utilized by Wheelies, a company with multiple branches across Europe and the USA. The report begins by differentiating between Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Management Information Systems (MIS), highlighting their distinct roles in supporting organizational decision-making processes. It then delves into the specific needs of Wheelies for a DSS, emphasizing its importance in managing production, inventory, and supplier relationships across various branches. The report explores the strategic, tactical, and operational levels where DSS can be implemented to enhance decision-making. Furthermore, the report examines the application of Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) to meet Wheelies' information requirements, enabling managers to analyze manufacturing data and improve supply chain management. The report also discusses Executive Information Systems (EIS), Enterprise Information Portals (EIP), and Knowledge Management Systems (KMS), detailing their functionalities and benefits within an organizational context. Finally, the report briefly touches upon expert systems and their relevance to Wheelies' operations.

Running head: INFORMATION SYSTEM AND ANALYSIS
Information System and Analysis- Wheelies’ Case Study
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
Part 1- DSS and MIS...................................................................................................................2
Part 2- Information Systems........................................................................................................3
Part 3- Need of Decision Support System in Wheelies...............................................................4
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
Part 1- Online Analytical Processing...........................................................................................7
Part 2- Expert Systems.................................................................................................................9
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................12
Functional Information Systems................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................17

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Task 1
Part 1- DSS and MIS
Decision support system or DSS helps the executives of an organization to make correct
decisions by analyzing historical as well as current information from the internal as well as the
external sources. DSS and MIS differ in various aspects. Management information system acts as
a link that facilitates communication among managers belonging to several disciplines in a
business organization (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). It is responsible for building flow of
communication in the organization. DSS is the advanced form of MIS. The main focus of DSS is
on the leadership and senior management requirement for the purpose of providing the top
management with an innovative vision (Bonczek, Holsapple & Whinston, 2014). The main focus
of MIS on the other hand is on information gathering and integration from various functional
departments. MIS plans the reports of different important topics within the organization. MIS is
responsible for making structured decisions and the DSS on the other hand is responsible for
semi or unstructured decisions. The flow of information in MIS is structured and not flexible.
DSS promotes flexibility, change and quick responses. The main objective of MIS is to gain
operational efficiency. The main objective of DSS on the other hand is to make effective
decisions so that the company can move in the right direction.
The business intelligence tools of cloud provide alternatives for SQL Azure Reporting.
Business intelligence tools can be used for the purpose of mere reporting just like in case of
cloud computing. Business intelligence can be used in various areas for bringing out
transformation in those areas. BI tools can be implemented for transforming the operations of IT,
manufacturing, financial and several other industries. Implementing BI tool in small enterprises

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is an example of transformational implementation of BI tools (Olszak & Ziemba, 2012).
Business intelligence tools can be used for the purpose of reporting and querying of business
data. These tools can collect, process unstructured data from external and internal sources for
preparing reports that will help the decision makers to analyze and make correct decisions
(Anandarajan, Anandarajan & Srinivasan, 2012). Reporting can also mean aligning daily
activities with the objectives of the senior management (Laursen & Thorlund, 2016). Process
transformation of BI rollout means when an organization is implementing BI then rather than
deploying BI in the entire organization, the company can rollout the application to individual
functional departments one at a time (Chen, Chiang & Storey, 2012). The other departments will
welcome the BI rollout after hearing about its usefulness. BI transformation will help the
organization to enhance their performance, set up right governance and policies.
Part 2- Information Systems
Executive information systems (EIS): This is also known as Executive Support System
or ESS. This information system helps the top management team to meet their strategic
information requirements. EIS can also be used by the lower managerial levels as well as
business professionals. EIS can be easily used by the executives. It will enable the executives to
access and retrieve information (Mayer, 2013). The information is tailored to the preferences and
needs of the executives. Information regarding the critical success factor of the organization can
be provided by the EIS. EIS will help the executives in supporting their controlling and planning
responsibilities. It also supports crisis management and develops a better system of reporting.
Enterprise information portals: This is responsible for providing a customized as well as
personalized interface that is web based. This interface is used for the corporate intranets so that
the users can easily access various internal as well as external business applications, information

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services and databases. These applications and databases are tailored to the preferences and
needs of the individuals. EIP has the capability of supplying personalized web-based knowledge,
information and decision support to the managers, executives as well as business professionals
along with suppliers, customers and business partners of the organization (Joshi, 2013). When
knowledge is integrated in the system then it can be called enterprise knowledge portal (Akhavan
et al., 2012). EIP helps the organization to improve its strategic decision making as well as
operational efficiency. The difference between EIP and static websites are that EIP are able to
incorporate information from various sources in various formats and organize it in a consistent
form. EIP helps the users to switch from BI systems to ERP applications then to sales report and
many more from standard browsers.
Knowledge management systems (KMS): KMS consists of practices that are used by an
organization for identifying, creating, representing, distributing and enabling adoption to
experience as well as insights. These experiences comprise of knowledge that is embodied in
individual or organizational practices and processes (Liebowitz & Frank, 2016). KMS helps in
improving the business performance, innovation, knowledge sharing and gaining competitive
advantages. KMS helps the lower level professionals and managers in document management,
middle level managers to create, share and manage information. It helps the top executives to
create business or enterprise intelligence. It helps the executives to solve any complex problem
in a faster manner and promotes continuous improvement in the organization (Hislop, 2013). It
provides information regarding any particular activity, product category and employee to the top
executives of a business.

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Part 3- Need of Decision Support System in Wheelies
Decision support system is gaining importance with time. Decision making plays the
most significant role in an organization (Demirkan & Delen, 2013). Wheelies’ Company needs
to make crucial decisions regarding its production, purchase and inventory control that takes
place in the organization. Wheelies’ has more than eight branches in Europe and around six
branches in USA. The parts of the bicycles are purchased from several suppliers across the world
and assembled in the factory for production. Crucial decisions need to be taken regarding
suppliers and the number of parts to be purchased as well as manufacture. All the branches need
to coordinate in an efficient manner in order to enhance the performance of the manufacturing
unit (Zavadskas et al., 2012). Proper integration of information from various branches and
functional departments is required for achieving the goal of the company. This initiates the need
of a Decision Support System that will facilitate the process of decision making in various levels
of the organization. Complex decisions will be taken in an easier manner by deploying DSS. It
will enable Wheelies’ to take fact-based decisions, improve the efficiency and quality of
decisions. Wheelies’ needs a system that will be able to carry out efficient data management,
analytics, reporting, planning and modelling issues. These needs will be fulfilled by a DSS. DSS
has the capability to reduce the large data quantity into a data that has high quality and structure.
This capability causes decision to support the process of manufacturing. Wheelies’ needs a
production process that will not face any process.
DSS will enable Wheelies’ to make effective decisions concerning the strategic, tactical
as well as the operational level in the organization (Kristianto et al., 2012). The strategic
management level in the manufacturing company will deal with making decisions that are related
to the goals and objectives of the company. These decisions will have a long-term implication on

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the enterprise (Radford, 2012). The top management of Wheelies’ will be responsible for making
strategic decisions. The decisions will be related to the supplier policies, management style,
quality control and assurance policies, financial reward system, responsibilities, manufacture
guidelines, maintenance policies, production related and make or buy decisions. Wheelies’
strategic management team needs to make decisions regarding network integration with
transportation channels and suppliers to the customers. Labour and transportation cost related
decisions will also be taken by the top or strategic management level of Wheelies’. The tactical
management team of Wheelies’ is located at Dallas, Miami, San Diego, Holland and Hamburg.
They are responsible for implementing the strategic decisions taken by the top management
team. The decisions of the tactical management level will be related to material flow policies,
production level at the factories in San Diego and Holland, assembly policies, inventory level as
well as lot sizes. The decisions are related to flow of material from the suppliers to the
production factories, to assembly plant via warehouses ultimately leading to the customers. The
operational management present at each branch will take decisions based on daily operations that
are carried out in the branch. The decisions will be related to in-time delivery of bicycles to
customers. Decisions regarding daily targets and production are taken by the operational level of
management in the company. The decision making process can be facilitated by using DSS in the
organization. This highlights the need of DSS in Wheelies’.
What-if analysis can be carried out in situations where the decision maker aims to change
variables or relationship among the variables to find out the changes in output variables (Bird &
Zimmermann, 2012). Wheelies’ can carry out what-if analysis by changing variable cost per
bicycle based on its type and category in order to recalculate the variables that are affected and
the sales. It can also change the suppliers to check how it affects the quality of the bicycles.

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Sensitive analysis can be carried out in situations where the decision maker wants to make
repeated changes to one variable in one time. The price of the bicycles can be continuously
changed to find out the affect in sales. Goal-seeing approach is carried out when the decision
maker sets an objective and continuously changes other variables till the target is achieved.
Wheelies’ can change the price continuously to achieve a certain profit. Optimization analysis
can be carried out in situations where the decision maker aims to find the optimum value of one
or more variables (Guo, Wang & Chen, 2014). Wheelies’ can find the highest profit that can be
earned. After that variable like bicycle price and quality can be changed to see what gives
maximum profit. These variables are subject to limitation of production capacity or financial
limitation.
Task 2
Part 1- Online Analytical Processing
OLAP will be able to meet the important information requirements of the Wheelies
managers located in different geographical locations (Kumar & Kumar, 2017). OLAP can be
considered to be a computer processing method that allows the managers to selectively and
easily extract data based on different perspectives. The managers will be able to analyse the
manufacturing data for spotting the quality of products so that they are able to guide for the
overall improvement of operations. OLAP will enable the managers to minimize the risk of
supply management by proper planning. The overall value of the supply chain can be improved
by utilizing OLAP. The managers will be able to determine the demand elasticity and carry out
efficient asset planning. OLAP will be able to get an insight into the preferences of the customers
by proper and efficient data analysis (Cuzzocrea, Bellatreche & Song, 2013). OLAP servers will

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enable the managers to get the total number of bicycles produced based on shifts, day and
machines for determining the best performance based on server resources. OLAP can generate
reports that will help the mangers located at different geographical locations to get an idea about
the entire production process that is being carried out in the organization. OLAP will help to
locate malfunctioning equipments for making a replace decision. The managers will be able to
locate issues across the entire organization. OLAP will integrate the data from various
geographical locations and present it in front the managers in a macro view. This quick snapshot
of the business will enable the managers to carry out budget analysis, look into the matter of
purchasing trends of the customers and the sales of the bicycles. The managers will be able to
drill down to any area to extract data that is needed for the business. Crucial monitoring of
alarming situations can also be done by the managers by utilizing OLAP. The production cycle,
production capacity, inventory turns and shortage of production can also be determined by the
OLAP tools. Suppose the manager of the branch present in San Diego wants to know the
maximum number of bicycles and the category of the bicycle that is sold in the branch that is
present in Hamburg then OLAP can be used to get accurate details. OLAP facilitates these
activities by storing data in multidimensional database. OLAP software has the ability to
integrate and present data based on different criteria. It will be able to help the managers to
examine as well as manipulate huge quantity of data from different perspectives. Complex
queries can be resolved by OLAP. Slicing and dicing of OLAP will be able to enable the
managers to analyze the production and sales trend in various locations. The managers will be
able to utilize the OLAP tools for analyzing the quality of the bicycles.

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Figure 1: Online Analytical Processing
(Source: Kumar & Kumar, 2017, p.7)
Part 2- Expert Systems
a) Expert systems can be advantageous to Wheelies’ manufacturing company. Expert
systems have the ability to solve complex problems by using heuristics and facts that are
generally used by the experts (Zimmermann, 2012). The expert jobs that are present in the
manufacturing process are interpretation, prediction, monitoring and diagnosis. The expert
system will be able to help the company to monitor manufacturing processes by interpretation of
process data. Decisions regarding control states can be facilitated by an expert system. It will be
able to find out the cause of any kind of instability that takes place in the process of
manufacturing. Wheelies will be able to make crucial decisions regarding the use of stable
process for manufacturing. The expert system will be able to find out the faults that are present in
the manufacturing devices as well as processes (Ipek et al., 2013). It gives evidence of the faults

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that are present in the current machines and processes. Expert system can help to facilitate the
business decision making regarding how to rectify the faults and give suggestions regarding
corrective actions. The expert system will be able to keep record of how a previous process was
rectified and based on the similarity can suggest corrective measures. This facilitates the decision
making process. Expert systems will be able to help in making decisions regarding planning as
well as scheduling of the jobs. Decisions regarding configuration can also be made by the expert
systems. The expert system will be able to store the details of the customer purchases. This will
help to suggest the customers the different category of bicycles that they might like to purchase
based on the stored purchase details of customers having similar preferences. Expert system will
be able to predict about the demand of a particular type of bicycle in a week and facilitate
Wheelies to make decisions regarding the purchase of parts from various suppliers. Expert
systems will also be able to suggest the type of parts that can be ordered for a particular category
of bicycle. Expert system will be able to enhance the process of decision making in the
Wheelies’ company.

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Figure 2: Expert System for Manufacturing Process Control
(Source: Ipek et al., 2013, p.334)
b) Tracking of consumer purchases is an effective marketing strategy that helps the
organizations to grow and develop by generating more revenues and profits. Though this
mechanism has allowed the consumers to come across products that they were unaware of but it
does take into account the privacy of the consumers. The consumers are unaware of the fact that
there information are being tracked and stored in the cloud storage of the online merchants for
the purpose of growing their business (Elbeltagi & Agag, 2016). In the Utilitarian theory of
ethics, an act is considered to be ethical if it gives maximum happiness among maximum people.
The ecommerce companies must be careful while tracking the customer information so that it