Task 2
The EIS system helps in two decisions.
Firstly, it is very important, that the college should get good students. Quality can be measured with their grades, experience and other attributes. The number of participants and the course fee are key questions. If the officer has a budget plan and he wants to achieve the set income per year, he has to decide and find the best proportion from the following; how many students are going to be admitted, fee, nationality of students, length of courses and so on. If there are enough students for example, some can be substituted with overseas students. They pay few times more than people who came from the UK or EU. If there are fewer students than it is required, the officer might have to admit students with lower grades.
Secondly, the dropping- out rate and number of graduates are important to the feedback. It reflects the quality of the students and whether the strategy has been set correctly.
Building Company
This company is a small business and the problems are caused by the paper work. It is a building enterprise and there is a big chance it will expand quickly in the future. The owners have to be able to develop the computer system.
Task 1:
The recommended operations software is Windows 98, 2000 or XP. Nowadays, the Internet is essential and it looks more professional for a business, and makes ordering cheaper, faster and obtains more orders from the Internet. The communication software such as: Outlook Express can be used. The security is important, so a utility program; for example Norton 2005 is also needed.
The enterprise needs a TPS system. In this case, this system provides the solution to solve the paper-work problems such as payroll, order, invoicing and stock control. It is likely, that a barcode reader hardware with a TPS system would be useful at this stage but in the future it is going to be vital because the company is going to have lots of raw materials and tools in order to execute the job. The suggested TPS software called Big Mac, is written especially for stock control. It is cheap and it has simple language and graphical platform, so it is easy to use.
A keyboard and a mouse are needed to drive the software and input figures into the database. The output device for the barcode reader is an . The information appear on a VGA or SVGA monitor. The assumed system does not have to be powerful, and the cost is between 400 and 500 pounds.
Because this enterprise is in the early stage of growing, (has limited IT and accounting skills) but has problems with paper work, it needs an Instant Account system.
Task 2
The above recommended TPS system solves the stocking problems, while the Instant Accounting software can work together with the TPS system and helps to store customer and supplier records, analyse accounts, to make product records, produce financial reports with VAT management, task management, control credit and cash book.
The enterprise operates in the building market and it can expand very quickly. Later it must take account of the problems caused by complex calculations involving costs, revenues, tools and wages, therefore better MIS systems might be used in the future.
Windows Company
The glazing company has problems with late and incomplete delivery. These problems discountenanced the customers easily and the double delivery costs waste money, herby in the long run the result could be devastated. The problem that a computer tends to solve, is to follow the rout of the goods and make the process easier to monitor.
The company does not have to spend a lot of money on the system.
Task 1:
The suggested operation system is a Windows 98, 2000 or XP. It has graphical platform to developed applications and it also has DOS. It needs to be installed for the TPS system that is responsible for the stock controlling, order processing, invoicing. Big Mac TPS system fits to manage these processes. A keyboard and a mouse are needed to drive the operation or application software. On the output side, a monitor is indispensable and a dot-matrix printer to print the invoices to the customer and delivering reports to the van drivers. The hardware is cheap, simple and easy to use.
Because this enterprise is a small company and it only has one product, the suggested monitoring program is Excel in an Office application pack.
Task 2
The problem in this case is that the rout of the windows is not monitored, therefore it is very hard to find out who made the mistake and what the reason was.
The problems can origin from two sources; communication problem between the assistant and the driver that is why delivery is late, wrong size or shape.
Both the assistant and the driver can make mistakes. The “Identification code of assistant” and the signature of the driver are indicated in the methods, so this option enables identification of the person who is responsible for the actual process. The “Problem” on the delivering report enables reporting of any problems such as: broken window, late delivery, wrong size or shape. This is very important because it is a feedback too, so there is an option to report reason for the problem where it is possible.
The delivery date is indicated in every method, so it is hard to leave it out of consideration.
If there is a problem with the stock because the ordered window is actually not in stock, the user has the opportunity to monitor it through the “Report2” (Code of task, Shape and size of window, Ordered quantity) option, so the assistant is able to order the missing product in time. The “Staggered” option on the invoice provides ordering the customer with a report about the late delivery.
The system helps the company have the order faster and more accurate. The identifications and the feedback reports check the correct working of the ordering and delivering.
Travel Agency
This company is a small international travel agency it supplies transport and accommodation services for travellers on holidays.
At least, they need to operate a microcomputer system because they have to save a lot of information about their customers. They also have to get in touch with other organisations such as hotels, apartments and hostels to book accommodation.
Even if the market or the demand expands, the company can manage the whole process with system mentioned below, hardware and software pack.
Task 1:
The computer is the base of this company because it is a service. In this business the three levels (operational management, tactical management and the strategic management) are together on one level. There is another important aspect that the agency’s system needs to be compatible with the other software which the company gets information from and sends booking to. Windows XP is the most popular and widespread arrangement in the world, so this is suggested.
The security is very important in this case, because the Internet is dangerous anyway and it operates with people’s personal information. The recommended browser program is Explorer 6.0. MS Office is important for writing good quality letters, brochures and graphical analysis. Communication software is the core of the service to send and get e-mails. To protect the computer, the company must operate utilities programmes such as: Norton Antivirus 2005, Panda or other security software.
In this case, the TPS system is responsible for the invoicing, while the MIS (Management Information System) for the decision-making and the monitoring process. To help the decision-making, the company has to know about the prices of the rivals, the cost of the booking, cost of the service and the estimated demand for the next year(s). The system has to be fast because the agency can save money on the quick booking. All of this information can be collected from the Internet, rivals and from other first or second data.
In the input process, the “consumer ID” and the “Code of the task” are very important because with these the process of orders and booking are monitored clearly. In the input stage, the “Invoice” is printed to the costumer while the “Booking” will be sent to the partner companies, such as: hotels, apartment and other agencies.
On the hardware side, the mouse and keyboard are very important because these devices are used to put the customer’s dates into the computer. A stripe recorder can be useful in the office because some people want to pay immediately by credit card.
The output could consist of a monitor and an inkjet printer. It has a more expensive support than a dot matrix. The invoice could be poor quality but in this case, with the invoice, there can be a description about the trip and some attractive pictures (like a brochure) attached.
Task 2
With the information system, the agency is able to communicate to the customers, hotels and the airline computers. The reports can keep the business effective because it gives statistics about: where people travelled, where they stayed, how many people, for how long, who they travelled with and how much money they spent. The enterprise can analyse the customers behaviour, amount spent on each journey,
It is important to plan the future supply and demand, hence the company can see in which direction it has to expand the service. For example, the company would be able to predict that most customers were going to travel to Spain. The MIS system helps to analyze the data and it easy to use.
Reference:
Geoffrey Knott (1993) Computer Studies for BTEC, Third Edition, Business Education Publishers Limited
Geoffrey Knott (1996) Computing, Business Education Publisher
