This report is dwells on Management Support System (MSS) for Intercom Programming Manufacturing Company (IPMC), with emphasis on four key areas. This areas are logical related and brings windows of growth to the company in the IT industry in Ghana.
The first task discusses decision making as in the some models of decision making. It also explains factors which influence decision and the roles of technology in decision making.
The second stage of this report takes an indebt look at IPMC and its position in the industry. Some activities and decisions made at IPMC are explained, with given potential application of MSS to making of these decision.
The next stage of this project looks at the characteristics of the decisions at IPMC and it implication on the business. The level of making decision at the company is investigated with the likelihood of the impact on the future of the company.
The final task of this project decision the application of Management Support Systems in the various decisions made at IPMC. This brings out the justification of the specific MSS and their success evaluation to the company.
DECISION MAKIG
It is the process of identifying problems and opportunities and then resolving them. (Daft and Marcic 2003).Decision making is either Programmed; thus structured by organization as result of events happened and been designed to solve this situation or non-programmed which is unstructured.
Modules of decision making
The approach to making a decision is classified as model and there are three models to decision making, namely Classical, Administration and Political.
Classical Model
The module is based on managers making decision based on economical assumption. This model gives the decision maker the norms and guidelines on how to reach a success outcome. Two major advantages of this model are; it aid rational ideals and avoidance of intuition from the decision maker.
Administration Model
This approach is 'based on the work of Herber A. Simon' (Daft and Marcic 2003), which proposed a two concept, the bounded and satisfice. The Administration model involves decision making based on the business rather than economical. It normally involves making decision in unstructured situation. It is intuitional since decision makers may use past ideas to solve a problem which they have not planned.
Political Model
Managers or decision makers seek to build a coalition of other managers with the same goal to fight a common goal. This approach creates a complex situation since every group wants their decision to be implemented.
Factors affecting decision making
Decision making is a major part of the success or failure of a business and this part is can be improved or delayed due to certain factors. These factors include; age, past experience, time pressure, individual difference on socioeconomic.
Age
There is proof that older people prefer less choices for decision making that young people (Reeds, Mikels and Simon 2008). So the age of the decision maker has an influence on the type of decision they are likely to take.
Past experience
The saying that 'you don't change a winning formula' would apply to past experience, if a decision made in the past yielded or did not yielded result then it would have an impact on the next decision making.
Time pressure
Thinking of more choice for a decision would arise if there is more time; likewise if the decision maker has less time, then they limit themselves to less choice of decision making.
Individual difference
Decision making would be affected by the individual making the decision. The interaction of the decision maker with technology or sociocultural attitude would influence the decision they make.
The role of technology in decision making
The strategic use of information technology (IT) may be one of the defining aspects of organizational success (Daft and Marcic 2003).
With technology information for business decision are presented on time with a less error in the information and also in a format for easy interpretation by decision makers.
With technologies, expert systems' information on complex market research are undertake to aid decision makers predict the future of their decision on the business.
BUSINESS PROCESSES
Business context (IPMC)
Intercom Programming and Manufacturing Company was established in 1992 in Ghana. It is into IT products distribution, solutions and training. 'IPMC is one of West Africa's largest IT companies with 400+ workforce and 19 locations. With its $5 million worth of local IT inventory and $25m turnover, IPMC is facilitating the growth of IT infrastructure and serves as many as 8000+ businesses in the region supported by 50+ suppliers globally' (ipmcghana.com).
IPMC is the Enterprise partner of HP, DELL, IBM, NETAPP, CISCO, MICROSOFT, ORACLE, CITRIX, PACKETEER, Tally Genicom and Epson for hardware and systems integration. IPMC supports ERP solutions from Ebizframe, Tally India and is also the leading IT education provider for NCC Education, Microsoft and Oracle courses.
Activities:
IPMC College of Technology is consistently enhancing skill sets of up to 10,000 students every year. IPMC distributes IT products through its premier partners undertakes turnkey ICT projects for large organizations and the government.
IPMC specialize in build, design and maintenance of Data centers and are lead consultants for Information Security and Business Continuity.
(ipmcghana.com).
Decision:
IPMC intend to take the following decision:
Selling of computer products by sales persons using MSS: instead of their usual style of customer visiting their show rooms and then making orders, it decided to use the strategy of sales visiting and looking for customer.
Computerization of school attendance: it has decided to computerize the attendance of students and lecture in all its 14 satellite campus.
Call center establishment: IPMC have decided to undertake a call Centre project to cater for training, sales, enterprise solutions, and network solutions and supports information to customers and potential customer.
Importance of selected decisions
Customers are not willing to visit the show rooms to order product, some may be happy if they are contact at their business places.
Lecture at most of the campus of IPMC have been complaining of absenteeism on the part of students and would only show up to write quiz or exams. The decision to computerize the attendance would not only benefit the student; academically but would increase the productive of the lectures.
Customers complain of delays in answering their calls when they need help since there is limited numbers to reach IPMC. The company have realize the importance of having a dedicated call Centre to deal with potential customers, customers and also potential student who call different campus to find out about a course offered.
Potential applications of MSS
The decision to sell product using sales persons would need a management support system to analyze each sales person performance, in terms of new customers brought on board, sales in a month, and complains of customers, pricing to win the market. This give an add advantage to the company by informing IPMC at first hand which product is doing and need to be stock and which to reduce orders.
The implementation of an computerized system would give accurate reports on individual lectures and gives a graphical representation of output of work for each lecture of the necessary action to be taken. This also gives evidence to parent who may challenge the institution of their wards performance academically, since the attendance of students is also analyzed. The administration of IPMC training department can now instantly take action faster and accurate on suspending a student or lecture with systematic report by the use of an MSS. Performance of students would be high and this would be a plus to the company over other training schools in the industry.
Potential student who visit various department of the training school at different location for enquires can easily do so by calling into the call centre to get all the necessary information for a course. A customer could be attended to immediately without holding-on to be redirected to sales, repair, complain or any department with the company to be attended to. This would be possible if the call centre is established. This would also give an instant report to manager or decision makers to monitor staff at the call Centre.
DECISION NEEDS
Characteristics of information for decisions
In implement the decision made by IPMC, the characteristics of information for these decisions are explained in this section.
Decision makers need to gather information about how to employ sales persons, training them and how to advertise this need decision. The use of the MSS to be used by sales person would have to test and sales person trained.
The decision to use attendance system in the training section of IPMC would require educating student on the new technology and students updating their record. Picture and biometric data of each student would have to be taken. Equipment installation and training of staff for this system would be considered.
The call center concept would need a serious advertisement of call centre lines, employment and training for call center staff.
Levels and impact of decision making
Decision making is vital to the operation a business and need a careful review before making any decision. There are levels of decision making based on the needs of the company, namely; strategic, tactical and operational.
The use of sales person and management system for sales of product is a strategic decision which is taken by the board of director of IPMC and it is a long term decision. This would change the direction of the business of the company. This decision's major impact would be on the sales department and they would be restructured to fit into the new process and also to eliminate sales of fake brands products the company sells from the market.
The use of school attendance system is a decision taken by the managers in the training department for IPMC and is a tactical decision. This decision is limited to the change a section of the business and can be changed at any time. This process would have an impact on the lecturers and student of IPMC, which would limit the attitude of absenteeism from especially the lecture since they have a direct link to the company. This would improve productive on the part of lecture and cooperation of student to lectures.
The last decision by IPMC affects the whole process of the business and this was taken by the board of directors of the company. This decision is on the strategic level of decision making and it is a new way of deal with potential customers and customers. This decision would be used by all the departments of IPMC. The impact of this decision is on the entire business of IPMC, this process would have to convince potential customers to become customers and maintain existing customers.
MSS APPLICATION
Expert systems and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
An Expert System (ES) is a computer program that contains some subject-specific information and contains the knowledge and analytical skills of experts in that subject area. They are also known as Knowledge-Based Systems. According to Fiksel J. and Hayes-Roth, F. (1989) they use human knowledge to solve problems that normally would require human intelligence. Expert systems are developed base on special software called Shell.
These systems consist of rules that analyze information about a specific problem, provide a mathematical analysis and then recommend a course of action to the user. ES are examples of systems which are describes as implementing artificial intelligence.
Expert Systems work on two principles; the knowledge base and inference. The knowledge base of expert systems contains both factual and heuristic knowledge. Expert system have different function ranging from; diagnosis and troubleshooting of devices and systems of all kinds, planning and scheduling, configuration of manufactured objects from subassemblies, financial decision making, knowledge publishing, process monitoring and control and design and manufacturing.
Some of the benefits of expert system include the high quality level of decision making by users of the system; speed up of work within an organization and cost of production for products or services reduced.
Possible application of MSS on processes
The three decisions identified with IPMC needs solution which would improve the business profit to a high level and as such these possible solutions were identified.
Decision
Possible solutions
Justification
computer base system for sales persons
Business Performance Management system
Sales Cloud 2
Business Performance Management Software Evaluation Report allows you to compare and analyze the features, functions, and services of multiple enterprise software solutions. (TEC 2010)
The software has manages the entire sales department of company.
Computerization of lectures and students attendance
School attendance management system (SAMS - Nivid)
Classroom attendance system (BioEnable)
SAMS provides robust, secure and automatic attendance management system for both, Students and Staff. (www.Nivid biometric)
This system checks how many students are present and verify attendance of students. It has a simplified data gathering process and reporting.
Call Centre establishment
Contact Centre Technology (Noetica)
VoiceNet call Centre
This system allows for you building a Customer Interaction Management Solution (CIM), Manage the dispatching of field personnel, call handing, complex escalation procedures or a significant amount of follow up resulting from multiple customer interactions. (www.noetica.com)
It enables business to effectively manage customer interactions regardless of agent location. Customers can call anytime of the day and be attended to.
Selection and evaluation of MSS application
With the possible solutions above, the following solutions were selected for the decision made by IPMC.
Sales Cloud 2 is an application which manages sales of product to the company with much need to be in the office, and this would be the best application for the sales for IPMC. It functions include; analytics and forecasting, content library, email and productivity approvals and workflow, jigsaw data services, opportunities and quotes, marketing and leads chatter accounts and contacts. (salesforce.com)
Some selected demonstrations of the application are shown below for evaluation;
With sales cloud manager allow discovery of more about your company and follow people who can help you close more deals. Chatter provides a fast and easy way to share important information through business profiles to help increase productivity.
It provides quick access to all critical account data, including a company overview, key sales data, relevant documents and partners involved in the account.
The system displays your company's key performance indicators. Personalize them by department, role, or even individual, so everyone sees only the information most relevant to him/her.
Users can quickly perform tasks or find what you need in Salesforce CRM right from your mobile device.
School attendance management system (SAMS)
These devices are connected with the SAMS server housed at IPMC. Each day the students will register their attendance with the biometric device. It will process the attendance and send a set SMS message to the parents/guardians of the absentee student via SAMS SMS gateway server. The system also allows school authorities to send SMS alerts to parents/guardians regarding special events and emergencies. SAMS allows enable administration staff to perform their function with utmost ease. The system provides various employee attendance and HR related functionalities. (nividbiometric.com)
The functionality of the SAMS is illustrated below
Call Centre
The VoiceNet call center software and telephony suite provides inbound, outbound and blended centers with every feature they need to succeed, including enterprise-grade call management, recording, monitoring, agent tools, IVR, easy integration capabilities and reporting. (voicenet.com)
Some major feature of the system is displayed below:
The VoiceNet management portal provides a centralized way for call center managers and supervisors to configure campaigns, view performance reports, store and search for recorded calls.
The system allows one or more supervisors to listen to live agent calls while also watching the agent's progress through the script.
SUMMARY
This report has been classified into four main areas Management Support Systems (MSS). Decision Making is explained in detail, lining up three models in decision making, factors influencing how decision are made and the role that technology plays in decision making.
IPMC is used a case study in analyzing business process including activities and decision making. The relevancy of selected decision to IPMC was observed and possible application of MSS to this decision. The competitive advantage of these decisions to IPMC is explained.
The levels to which this decision are made is explained and their impact on the business of IPMC. Finally the report discussed the expert systems and the justification of using the selected solution to be applied to decision made.
