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MIS ASSIGNMENT An

MIS Assignment SUBMITTED TO

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT(NEW DELHI)

In partial fulfillment of requirement for the award of the Degree of

MBA(SINGLE SPECIALIZATION)

YEAR 2010-11

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF Miss Brinda Nair Lecturer MIS

Submitted by: Avinash Gupta

ISBE-B FH1

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Q1. Define Information. What are the characteristics of good or useful information? Can data for one person/phase be information for another? How? Ans. Information is processed data. Information is data that has been given meaningby way of relational connection. This "meaning" can be useful, but does not have to be. In computer parlance, a relational database makes information from the data stored within it. Characterstics of good or usefull information: Relevance: The information that a person uses must be relevant to the current problem at hand. If the information is not relevant it would not help to solve the problem at all. Complete: The information must be complete. If the information is not complete and only partial information is received, it may lead to wrong decisions being made as only half of an entirety of the information is known. Accuracy: The information must be accurate as unaccurate information would lead to many different major problems as unaccurate information for example, may lead to people playing the stock market to lose alot of money. Current: The information must be current as a fact of yesterday may not be a fact of today. For example, a criminal on the loose the day before would not be a criminal on the loose anymore if he gets caught today. As the stock market is everchanging, current information is really a must. Economical: The information used must be of economical use to companies that use them. Companies are built to make profit, if the information used is not economical it would result in companies making losses and get shut down. That is why economical information is important.

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Q2. Why is Information System important? Ans. 1. Operational excellence: Business improve the efficiency of their operations inorder to achieve higher profitability. Information systems are important tools available to managers for achieving higher levels of efficiency and productivity in business operations. A good example is Wal-Mart that uses a RetailLink system , which digitally links its suppliers to every one of Wal-Mart's stores. as soon as a a customer purchase an item , the supplier is monitoring the item , knows to ship a replacement to the shelf. 2. New products, services, and business models. Information system is a major tool for firms to create new products and services, and also an entirely new business models. A business model describe how a company produces, delivers, and sells a product or service to create wealth. Example: Apple inc transformed an old business model based on its iPod technology platform that included;;[o iPod, the iTunes music service, and the iPhone. 3. Customer/supplier intimacy. When a business serves its customers well, the customers generally respond by returning and purchasing more. this raises revenue and profits. The more a business engage its suppliers, the better the suppliers can provide vital inputs. This lower costs. Example: The Mandarin Oriental in manhattan and other high-end hotels exemplify the use of information systems and technology to achieve customer intimacy. they use computers to keep track of guests' preferences, such as their preffered room temperature, check-in time, television programs. 4. Improved decision making. Many managers operate in an information bank, never having the right information at the right time to make an informed decision. These poor outcomes raise costs and lose customers. Information system made it possible for the managers to use real time data from the marketplace when making decision. Example: Verizon Corporation uses a Web-based digital dashboard to provide managers with precise real -time information on customer complains, network performance.. Using this information managers can immediately allocate repair resources to affected areas, inform customers of repair efforts and restore service fast. 5. Competitive advantage.When firms achieve one or more of these business objectives( operational excellence, new products, services, and business models, customer/supplier intimacy, and improved decision making) chances are they have already achieved a competitive advantage. Doing things better than your competitors, charging less for superior products, and responding to customers and suppliers in real time all add up to higher sales, and higher profits. Example: Toyota Production System focuses on organizing work to eliminate waste, making continues improvements, TPS is based on what customers have actually ordered.

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6. Day to day survival. Business firms invest in information system and technology because they are necessities of doing business. This necessities are driven by industry level changes. Example: Citibank introduced the first automatic teller machine to attract customers through higher service levels, and its competitors rushed to provide ATM's to their customers to keep up with Citibank. providing ATMs services to retail banking customers is simply a requirement of being in and surviving in the retail banking business. Firm turn to information system and technology to provide the capability to respond to these.

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Q3. What are the 4 levels of application of Information Systems in a firm? Ans.

` ` ` ` `

Five year sales forecast Five year operation planning Five year budget forecast Profitability forecast Human resources planning

IS for Sales and Marketing

IS for Manufacturing

IS for Accounting and Finances

Main functions of the system

Sales-Management Market Analysis Promotion Price setting New Products

Planning Purchasing Shipping & Handling Engineering Manufacturing

Budgeting Big Ledger Invoicing Computation of COGS

Main applications

Order Monitoring Market Studies Price Lists

Stock & Purchases control Machines operation and control Quality control

Big ledger Debtors Creditors Budgeting Cash

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` Systems for basic office work: Word processing Document and image creation Electronic calendar (Outlook) ` Systems for intellectual work: Engineering work stations and softwares Management work stations and softwares

` Management information systems: Sales management Stock control Yearly budgeting Capital investment control Careers evolution management ` Systems to assist middle mgt decision process: Sales analysis by region Production planning Costs analysis and costs control Price analysis and profitability analysis

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Q4. How does Management Information system add value to a firm? Ans. In today's competitive business environment every activity carried out in anorganization comes under scrutiny to make sure it pays its way for the business. This is particularly true for non-core activities, such as the provision of information and library services in many organizations. Describes ways to add value for a successful firm. .The Guidelines There are ten guidelines with a broad coverage, ranging from developing a strategic role for information to the development of capabilities and the marketing of the information unit. There is a considerable degree of overlap between these guidelines, since many of them support and depend on each other. 1. Establishing the Strategic Role of Information This is a two stage process: (1) a research and investigation phase that gives you the information you need for (2) articulating your mission and strategy. Some of the strategic decisions whose successful outcomes depend on the availability of good information include:y y y y

Market selection and targeting New investments Location of factories and offices o Pricing and Promotion New product development and launch

2. Identify Users Real Needs This is the first of the marketing guidelines. It is essentially about market research. Therefore use the methods used by researchers - surveys, interviews, usage analysis. You already have users. Find out how they use your output and again what results and benefits they achieve. 3. Segment Your Market This is the keystone of every marketing strategy - grouping customers into segments with common sets of needs. Too often, information unit providers offer a homogenous service to all. This tends to create averaging, of a mediocre service to everybody, rather than an excellent service to some. Typically segments may be based on departments, product lines, or industries served. However, one attractive method of segmentation relies on the distinctively different needs of senior managers involved with strategic decisions, field sales people, and

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people in headquarters functions, such as product development and marketing. By defining a few distinct segments you can develop different service approaches and perhaps different resourcing and pricing. This will overcome the common pitfalls of a common approach that leads to conflicts between the 'urgent' and important'. 4. Create a Unique Product Although you are offering a service, it has many features of a product - a look and feel, a function, and often a tangible manifestation (printed or electronic output). Therefore you need to think in ways of how to make this output more attractive. Your users can buy information elsewhere (and probably do). Your challenge is to customise and add value. Ways of adding value to generic information are shown in Table 1.

One caveat, though, is not to undertake activities that can be done as effectively by others or by the users themselves (such as ordering specialist books and journals). You need to package your activities as a set of products that are unique and distinctive. Articulate what this uniqueness is. An example might be your knowledge and access to sources, that lets you offer 'one-stop shopping'. 5. Sales and Marketing There is no getting away from it. A successful information unit will sell and market its services. It will have promotional fliers that also serve to inform and educate users. It may well have its own identity and logo. It should also get out and meet customers at their events, such as a sales meeting or the in-house annual research conference. As

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well as helping the 'selling' it also gains valuable input that helps you develop and improve your services. Pricing is another aspect of marketing that needs careful attention. Gone are the days when you can continually offer your services for free. Information is valuable - let your clients appreciate that! One approach that can be very effective in a sizeable unit, is to allocate different professionals as 'account managers' for different client groups. This helps their own personal development as they will learn to represent the whole of the information unit and not just their own specialist activity. 6. Evaluation and Feedback Evaluation and feedback will help you fine tune your product offering, and your marketing strategy. It also links back to the first marketing phase, that of research, thus completing the management loop. Three simple but effective ways of gaining feedback are: - include a feedback sheet with every item you send out; keep it short e.g. 2-3 questions, such as asking how they used the information provided, and how much time and money it saved - maintain a call log (even easier with a computerised client data-base); use it to analyse the pattern of demand and identify any patterns over time

- publish the results; it generates even more feedback, and also maintains visibility. 6. Building Partnerships Building effective partnerships with clients and suppliers is paramount. There are several means by which partnerships with the business can be strengthened. They operate at three levels: Organisation level - the reporting structure can have a positive influence. An information unit that is a corporate function, rather than embedded within one department is generally better positioned. Also treating it as a separate profit centre. The strategic influence is increased when the head of the information unit report to a member of the board - in my case it was the director of marketing and strategy. Teams - there should be teams and task forces that bring information professionals together with business managers. If the account manager approach is adopted, ensure that the information professional becomes an integral part of one of the clients management teams. Also why not have user representatives on your own management team.

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Individual - opportunities to improve partnership occur when individuals develop good working relationships with each other. One way of achieving this is through co-location e.g. of an information professional into a user department, or of secondments, say for six months, between a business unit and the information unit.

7. Develop Hybrid Skills Although you may have trained as an information professional, to bring improved benefits to the business you will need to broaden your skills i.e. become something of a 'hybrid'. A hybrid manager has a mixture of business knowledge and general management skills as well as that of their speciality. Some of the key skills they possess are:y y y y y

knowledge of the industry in which the organisation operates awareness of business issues and pressures organisation 'know-how' and 'know-who' communication skills inter-personal skills

Therefore, unless you want to remain a specialist, you should take time out to develop some, if not all, of these skills. This can be achieved by management training, going to industry events and courses, and being assigned on secondment to a business units.

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Q5. What does the term 'competitive advantage' mean? Ans. Competitive advantage: is defined as the strategic advantage one businessentity has over its rival entities within its competitive industry. Achieving competitive advantage strengthens and positions a business better within the business environment. Competitive advantage occurs when an organization acquires or develops an attribute or combination of attributes that allows it to outperform its competitors. These attributes can include access to natural resources, such as high grade ores or inexpensive power, or access to highly trained and skilled personnel human resources. New technologies such as robotics and information technology either to be included as a part of the product, or to assist making it. The term competitive advantage is the ability gained through attributes and resources to perform at a higher level than others in the same industry or market. The study of such advantage has attracted profound research interest due to contemporary issues regarding superior performance levels of firms in the present competitive market conditions. A firm is said to have a competitive advantage when it is implementing a value creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential player. Successfully implemented strategies will lift a firm to superior performance by facilitating the firm with competitive advantage to outperform current or potential players . To gain competitive advantage a business strategy of a firm manipulates the various resources over which it has direct control and these resources have the ability to generate competitive advantage . Superior performance outcomes and superiority in production resources reflects competitive advantage .

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Q.6 Describe Porters 5 forces model. Ans. The model recognizes 5 major forces that could endanger a companys positionin a given industry. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) The threat of entry of new competitors The bargaining power of suppliers The bargaining power of customers The threat of substitute product or services. The rivalry among existing firms in the industry.

1). The threat of the entry of new competitors:y y y y y y The existence of barriers to entry (patents, rights, etc.) Capital requirements. Access to distribution. Brand equity example Sony. Customer loyalty to established brand. Industry profitability; the more profitable the industry the more attractive it will be to new competitors.

2). The bargaining power of suppliers:Bargain Power of Suppliers is High/Strong if: y y y y y y y y y Suppliers are more concentrated than buyers . Buyer switching costs are high. Threat of forward integration is high. Buyer is not price sensitive. Buyer is uneducated regarding the product. Buyer purchases product in low volume. Buyer purchases comprise small portion of supplier sales. Product is highly differentiated. Substitutes are unavailable.

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Supplier Bargain Power is Low/Weak if: y y y y y y y y y Buyers are more concentrated than suppliers. Buyer switching costs are low. Threat of forward integration is low. Buyer is price sensitive. Buyer is well-educated regarding the product. Buyer purchases product in high volume. Buyer purchases comprise large portion of supplier sales. Product is undifferentiated. Substitutes are available.

3). The bargaining power of customers:Buyer Power is High/Strong if: y y y y y y y y y Buyers are more concentrated than sellers Buyer switching costs are low Threat of backward integration is high Buyer is price sensitive Buyer is well-educated regarding the product Buyer purchases product in high volume Buyer purchases comprise large portion of seller sales Product is undifferentiated Substitutes are available

Buyer Power is Low/Weak if: y y y y y y y y y Buyers are less concentrated than sellers Buyer switching costs are high Threat of backward integration is low Buyer is not price sensitive Buyer is uneducated regarding the product Buyer purchases product in low volume Buyer purchases comprise small portion of seller sales Product is highly differentiated Substitutes are unavailable

4). The threat of substitute product or services:y y Buyer propensity to substitute Relative price performance of substitute

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y y y y

Buyer switching costs Perceived level of product differentiation Number of substitute products available in the market Ease of substitution. Information-based products are more prone to substitution, as online product can easily replace material product.

5). The rivalry among existing firms in the industry:y y y y Competition between online and offline companies; click-and-mortar Level of advertising expense Powerful competitive strategy The visibility of proprietary items on the Web used by a company which can intensify competitive pressures on their rivals.

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Q7. List the strategies that a firm can adopt to overcome competition?

Ans. Response strategies -Developing a Sustained Competitive Advantage:-

Cost Leadership Strategy: Produce products and/or services at the lowest cost in the industry. Companies that choose this strategy offer relatively standardized products with a minimum level of differentiation. Constant efforts at lowering their costs. Cost Reduction strategieso Building efficient scale facilities o Establishing tight control of production and overhead costs. o Minimizing costs of sales, product research and development and service o Investing in state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies.

y y y y

The companys focus throughout each of its primary and secondary value creating activities is ono Simplifications of processes and procedures o Achieving efficiency and effectiveness o Reducing costs

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o Monitoring the costs of activities provided by others that interface with the company o Example located in close proximity of suppliers, timing of asset purchases, delivery schedule that reduces costs, small and highly trained sale force, selection of low cost transport carriers, efficient order sizes. Differentiation strategy:Offer different products, services, or product features. Differentiate the products in some way in order to compete successfully. Focus on product innovations or product features that a customer values. y

A differentiation strategy is appropriate where: o o o o The target customer segment is not price-sensitive, The market is competitive or saturated, Customers have very specific needs which are possibly under-served, The firm has unique resources and capabilities which enable it to satisfy these needs in ways that are difficult to copy. These could include patents or other Intellectual Property (IP), unique technical expertise (e.g. Apple's design skills or Pixar's animation prowess), talented personnel (e.g. a sports team's star players or a brokerage firm's star traders), or innovative processes. o Successful brand management also results in perceived uniqueness even when the physical product is the same as competitors. This way, Chiquita was able to brand bananas, Starbucks could brand coffee, and Nike could brand sneakers. Fashion brands rely heavily on this form of image differentiation.

Products can be differentiated in a number of ways: o Superior quality o Unique features o More responsive customer service o Rapid product innovation o Advanced technological features o Engineering design o An image of prestige or status

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Q8. Explain briefly the value chain model. Ans. Activities conducted in any organization can be divided into two parts: primaryactivities and support activities. Primary activities are those activities in which materials are purchased, processed into products, and delivered to customers. Each adds value to the product or service hence the value chain. y y y y y Inbound logistics (inputs, raw materials handling and warehousing) Operations (manufacturing and testing) Outbound logistics (storage and distribution) Marketing and sales (advertising, pricing, promotion) Service (installation, repair, parts)

Unlike the primary activities, which directly add value to the product or service, the support activities are operations that support the creation of value (primary activities) y y y y The firms infrastructure (accounting, finance, management) Human resources management Technology development (R&D) Procurement (purchasing of raw material, machines, supplies)

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Q9. Does IT help sustain competitive advantage? Ans. IT help sustain competitive advantage are:y y Create inward systems which are not visible to competitors. Provide a comprehensive, innovative & expensive system that is difficult to duplicate. Combine SIS with structural changes. This would include business processes, reengineering & organizational transformation.

y

In planning IT it is necessary to examine three basic strategies: (1) Be a leader in technology. The advantages of being a leader are the ability to attract customers, to provide unique services and products. However, there is a high development cost of new technologies and high probability of failures. (2) Be a follower. This is a risky strategy because you may be left behind. However, you do not risk failures, and so you usually are able to implement new technologies at a fraction of the cost.

(3) Be an experimenter, on a small scale. This way you minimize your research and development investment and the cost of failure. When new technologies prove to be successful you can move fairly quickly for full implementation.

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Q10. What is the definition of a 'digital firm'?

Ans. A digital firm is one in which nearly all of the organization's significant businessrelationships with customers, suppliers, and employees are digitally enabled and mediate. Core buiness processes are accomplished through digital networks spanning the entire organization or linking multiple organizations. Business processes refer to the set of logically related tasks and behaviors that organizations develop over time to produce specific business results and the unique manner in which these activities are organized and coordinated. Digital firms involve both time shifting and space shifting. Time shifting refers to business being conducted continuously, 24x7, rather than in narrow "work day" time bands of 9 a.m. To 5 p.m. Space shifting means that work takes place in a global workshop, as well as within national boundaries.

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Q11. What are the different components of an MIS? Ans. Following are the different components of MIS are :HardWARE Input and output devices constitute the hardware components of MIS Software The programs and applications that convert data into machine-readable language are known as software Procedures Procedures are sets of rules or guidelines, which an organization establishes for the use of a computer-based information system Personnel The computer experts, managers, users, analysts, programmers, database managers, and many other computer professionals who utilize the computer-based information systems are the personnel in a management information system.

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Q12 .Describe Decision Support Systems (DSSs). What are their major components? Ans. A decision support system (DSS) is a computer-based information system that supports business or organizational decision-making activities. DSSs serve the management, operations, and planning levels of an organization and help to make decisions, which may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance.Major component of Decision support system: 1. The database (or knowledge base),: the database management system or DBMS controls the information gathered from both the internal and external sources of the company.. 2. The model (i.e., the decision context and user criteria),: The model based management system components, on the other hand, is concerned with in-depth analysis of sophisticated data and their proper interpretation. It provides various models for the purpose of assessing and interpreting that will help in forming decisions. 3. The user interface.: the User Interface components of Decision Support Systems present the user with tools to manage the various data and their models, thus presenting a coherent system and also providing immediate feedback.

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Q13. Distinguish between MIS and DSS? Ans. Following are the difference between MIS & DSS :-

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Q14. Why should users be involved in the software development process? Ans. GUIDELINES FOR END-USERS.The higher the level of the manager, the less he or she is likely to care about computer technology.

The goals and priorities of management may be in conflict with those of the supervisory and operational users. Management may not provide resources, funding or time that the users feel is necessary to build an effective system. The end users involved indirectly in the development process are auditors, standard bearers, and quality assurance group. The objective of this group is to ensure that the system is developed in accordance with various standard set: - standards by other departments. - standards by government regulatory agencies. - accounting standards. - they do not get involved until the end of project. they provide the necessary notation and format of documentation.

Development Team It is responsible in building the software that will support a domain specific system.

System Analyst Responsibility is understanding the system. Within this system, he identifies customer wants, and documents and prioritizes requirements.

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System Designer Responsibility is to transform a technology free architectural design that will provide the framework within which the programmers can work.

Programmers Responsibility of the programmers is to write the codes of the software using a particular programming language based on system design.

Testers Work product should be reviewed for faults and errors. It ensures thatwork products meet requirements and standards defined.

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Q15. Outline the various phases of SDLC. Briefly explain each. List deliverables, if any, in each phase. Ans. The waterfall model of development is an example of a Software DevelopmentLife Cycle (SDLC) model. It is called waterfall because of the way it falls down. This visual aspect is what affects peoples perceptions of what it does and hence how it is implemented. The earliest paper which describes the waterfall is Managing the Development of Large Software Systems by Dr. Winston W. Royce published in 1970. However he did not call it the waterfall model and he had several criticisms in using it if it was naively implemented. Instead he was championing the concepts of a sequence of development stages and crucially iterating back to previous stages as more evidence emerged during development. The image below is the classic Waterfall model methodology, which is the first SDLC method and it describes the various phases involved in development.

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Briefly on different Phases: Feasibility The feasibility study is used to determine if the project should get the go-ahead. If the project is to proceed, the feasibility study will produce a project plan and budget estimates for the future stages of development. Requirement Analysis and Design Analysis gathers the requirements for the system. This stage includes a detailed study of the business needs of the organization. Options for changing the business process may be considered. Design focuses on high level design like, what programs are needed and how are they going to interact, low-level design (how the individual programs are going to work), interface design (what are the interfaces going to look like) and data design (what data will be required). During these phases, the software's overall structure is defined. Analysis and Design are very crucial in the whole development cycle. Implementation In this phase the designs are translated into code. Computer programs are written using a conventional programming language or an application generator. Programming tools like Compilers, Interpreters, Debuggers are used to generate the code. Different high level programming languages like C, C++, Pascal, Java are used for coding. With respect to the type of application, the right programming language is chosen. Testing In this phase the system is tested. Normally programs are written as a series of individual modules, these subject to separate and detailed test. The system is then tested as a whole. The separate modules are brought together and tested as a complete system. The system is tested to ensure that interfaces between modules work (integration testing), the system works on the intended platform and with the expected volume of data (volume testing) and that the system does what the user requires (acceptance/beta testing). Maintenance Inevitably the system will need maintenance. Software will definitely undergo change once it is delivered to the customer. There are many reasons for the change. Change could happen because of some unexpected input values into the system. In addition, the changes in the system could directly affect the software operations. The software should be developed to accommodate changes that could happen during the post implementation period.

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Q16. List the different System building approaches (also called Alternative Development Frameworks). Explain each briefly, highlighting the key points. Ans.

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Q17. What is Self-sourcing or End-user computing? Ans. Selfsourcing or End user computing is the internal development and supportof IT systems by knowledge workers with minimal contribution from IT specialists. Knowledge workers develop and utilize their own IT systems, as opposed to contracting out the work in a process known as outsourcing. Knowledge workers are workers who are dependent upon information or who develop and utilize knowledge in the workplace.

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Q18. Explain BPR. Ans. Business process reengineering is the analysis and design of workflows andprocesses within an organization. According to Daven ports(1990) business process is a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome. Re-engineering is the basis for many recent developments in management. The cross-functional team, for example, has become popular because of the desire to re-engineer separate functional tasks into complete cross-functional processes. Also, many recent management information systems developments aim to integrate a wide number of business functions. Enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, knowledge management systems, groupware and collaborative systems, Human Resource Management Systems and customer relationship management.s

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Q19. What is the Role of IT in BPR? Ans. BPR was introduced in manufacturing/service industries with the objective ofchanging the management of the supply chain. In manufacturing, the nature of material flow determines the type of information and decision support systems required to achieve system integration and hence the overall effectiveness of the system. A conceptual model has been developed in this paper to illustrate the role of information systems in BPR and the type of information systems required to integrate functional areas in manufacturing. Hammer's (1990) message Reengineering work: don't automate, obliterate stresses a radical process simplification as the way to reduce time and cost, and to eliminate or at least simplify processes, not just speed them up. There has been tremendous interest on how to simplify the process and hence the information system required for effective management of material flow in manufacturing. The implementation of BPR using innovative application of information technology (IT) aims at flexible, team-oriented, and cross-functionally co-ordinated management. A framework has been presented in the paper to design a more effective BPR system with the help of advanced IT.

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Q20. What are the risks of BPR? Ans. Business Planning & Strategy - helping you to find where you need to go,helping you to get there at the right time, and in the best way which will consistently add value to your firm. This may include thought leadership (more imaginatively than SWOT/ PESTLE), positioning, market research, pricing & value analysis, etc Business Process Re-engineering & Change Management - helping you review/ re-think how you currently operate your business, helping capitalise on alternative approaches, new channels and technologies, prioritising the changes needed to release value, and managing the delivery of those changes for maximum value - to transform your business. Risk Management & Compliance - it has often been said that if 'risk' is a fourletter word, then compliance is an expletive. We can help make it spell opportunity, not doom; since there is rarely reward without risk. Business is now embedding the risk discipline into all activities. However, recognising and monitoring the financial impact of risks held using financial (riskadjusted) measures is only a start, not a goal. BPR-RISK can help you to identify, prioritise and manage your business risk, to achieve compliance, maximise riskreward and value, and protect your reputation. Risk Financing solutions - helps look at a range of ways of stabilising risk shocks, and ensuring sufficient capital adequacy utilising a range of traditional and alternative financing products and techniques including securitisation. In the same way that traditional 'reflex' purchase of insurance was re-considered in light of offshore self-insurance 'captive' alternative, current 'best practice' should be continuously re-assessed. BPR-RISK can also help you to comparatively benchmark your performance and that of your suppliers, service providers and counterparties.

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