Information is the most valuable resources for an organization to take time demanding decision making for the accomplishment of the goals and objectives of that company to sustain in the market place for the longer periods of time. For the planning, organizing, monitoring and controlling of the all types of activities within an organization, management information system plays an important role for sustainable information flow of that company. Managers communicate and share different kinds of information and date that facilitate their decision making process. P&G is one of the best companies in the world that has been maintaining their information system by using SAP project to provide best data services to their actual and potential customers. They have been collecting their information from primary and secondary sources. They have also been starting using ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and modern supply chain management in their MIS (Halale, 2010).

TASK 1:

1.1: Identification of the features of data and information

By processing raw data an organization gets information. Data always represents the values of qualitative and quantities variables such as numbers, letters, and a set of characters. Companies get their raw or unprocessed data from internal and external sources (Halale, 2010).

The features of data:

ü Data are always in unprocessed manner

ü Data can be represented in some structures such as data tree, data graphs and tabular data and so on

ü Data can be qualitative and quantitative

ü Data is used as input

ü Data doesn’t depend on information

ü Data is a single unit data doesn’t have a meaning

On the other hand information is the processed data or output of data that helps a company to take decisions for organization (Diehr, 1989). There are different features of information:

Ø Information is the output of data

Ø Information is processed data

Ø Information is specific

Ø Information carries meaning that is logical

So there some differences between data and information for an organization like P&G to time demanding decision making. But the most important features of data and information are the relevance, comprehensibility, accessibility, timeliness and accuracy (Diehr, 1989). For example: P&G always provides the accessibility and relevant information to employees and all departments in timely manner.

1.2: Determination of the criteria to be applied when selecting data and information to support decision making

There are some criteria to be applied when P&G takes decision making by their data and information. The data are collected very carefully as P&G always tries to processes their raw data and using information. When P&G select data, they follow some criteria that assist them to make time demanding decision making for the organizational development (Bidgoli, 2011). Criteria of data selection are given below:

Ø Data should be accurate that generates the valuable rules

Ø Data should be complete in nature because incomplete data can misguide their decision making

Ø Data should be valid in nature because decision makers always needs updated data

Ø Data should be consistent because consistent and stable data provides well defined and organized information for organization

Information of P&G company leads different criteria to, information should be clear, specific, relevant, presentable, timely, available in nature, quality, and so on. Criteria of information in decision making process of managers are listed below:

ü Information should be clear in nature that leads the employees of P&G to make decision in tactical level within the organization

ü Information should be relevant because irrelevant information lead incomplete decision making

ü Information should be present able in nature in well structured formats that will present a clear scenario of the organization

ü The quality of information should be standard such as formats, design, timeliness and accessibility

ü The availability and timeliness of information should be maintained for the better decision making by the staffs within the venture (Bidgoli, 2011).

1.3: Evaluation of the impact of a management information system to a company

Good and timely management information can pave the way to great success of P&G and companies in the world. There is a huge impact of management information system in decision making and the activities and operation of a company to sustain in the competitive market place (Couper, 1998).

Here strategic information system aids P&G in increasing the productivity of creativity of new products and services. Organization can take better planning, implementation of new policies, and making profits by organizational activities.

Organization uses information and communication technology to make access to their employees to their information. For this reason, companies can get information about their products, services, experiences, offerings etc and can communicate with their target market and employees (Couper, 1998).

By using the management of information system, companies can manage the underlying needs, wants and demands of customers, incorporate information such as product values, promotional procedures, internal and external information such as data processing, organizational responses, interpretation of information and data and so on.

Potential Challenges and drawbacks

Nowadays the business arena has become very challenging for the invention of new technologies related to IMS. Companies can’t cope up with the new information management technologies swiftly and think that the existing on is the best. For mitigating these limitation companies should update their IMS and data technology to sustain in the competitive market place.

Companies can know about their market competitors by using MIS within the organization and can increase the standard and quality of products, and can collect the information about competitors and customers (Becker, 2002).

Management information system helps an organization to increase production, make available of customer information, know customers better, gain specialist knowledge, business process information, suppliers and other stakeholder’s information, HRM information, take new plans and policies, satisfy customers.

In P&G should minimize their info related limitation and be ready for the potential challenges from top level to front liner, top level managers directs their middle level managers and the middle level managers circulate information to their lower level managers. For example: the financial department of P&G keeps the sale volume data and their generating revenues that help them to make decisions (Becker, 2002).

TASK 2:

2.1: Determination of the legal responsibilities in sourcing, sharing and storing information

Information is the most valuable resources of an organization that leads an organization to accomplish their goals and objectives. For this reason, information should be private and confidential in nature and secured. When P&G select source, share data and store information for their organization, they should follow some rules and regulation, ethical issues, safety of information and data, security, ethical issues and other consumer protection aspects. There are some legal responsibilities to be taken in the time of sourcing, sharing and storing information, they are given below:

Information privacy and confidentiality

Privacy and confidentiality should be maintained in an organization to perform their goals and objectives in the selected segments of the company. Employees should know that they are bound to make the information secured as information is the heart of the success of an organization (Adriaans and Zantinge, 1996). In P&G, innovation, creativity and new product development strategy are main activities to sustain in the market place in UK, for this reason, disclosure of this kind of information can bring vulnerability for the company (Adriaans and Zantinge, 1996).

Contractual responsibility and obligation within the company

All the employees are directed to perform their roles in their own positions and maintain the legal obligations into the company. By the rules of the company’s agreement and contract, it is clearly said that employees and other core people cannot breach the rules of the contract.

IS, information crime, software protection, patent and others

There are different things here that should be avoided in storing, sharing and sourcing information such as misuse of information, violation of the conditions of the contract, making fraud in information sharing etc. These types of jobs can wide up the company. Any kind of information should be under security, safety, and copyright and software protection (Adriaans and Zantinge, 1996).

2.2: discussion of when information should be offered and access allowed

Organizations need to take time demanding decision for the accomplishment of the goals and objectives of the company. When managers are going to take any kind of decision they need some information to take organization centric decision to sustain in the competition. When a company takes a new move to take a decision they should be accessed reliable information for their important decision making processes. Information should be offered and accessed by following the rules and regulations and condition of data protection Act because it aids individuals and organization and groups to know about the information. Companies always have to maintain some principles of data protection act for offering and accessing information, they are listed below (Niblett, 1984):

ü Individual data and information should be processed fairly and lawfully

ü Information and data should only be processed for limited aspects if details data is required then it needs permission e.g. health and safety data, employment and other aspects

ü Personal or individual information and data should be adequate, enough, relevant and not excessive in nature

ü Accuracy of the data should be maintained and at the same time data should be recent

ü Safety and security of the individual data should be confirmed

ü Data transfer and exchange should be secured from home and abroad

ü Need not to maintain and keep unnecessary data and information

As the information and data are main success factors in the market place of competition in the global market, these types of aspects are maintained properly to get the reliability and trustworthiness from the target market (Niblett, 1984).

2.3: evaluation of the formats in which information can be offered

Every organization needs to maintain a format of storing, sharing and sharing of various types of information to stakeholders. The formats always vary from company to company country to country and place to place. For example: P&G follows a stable format of collecting, storing, sharing and protecting information but the information sharing format of HF Holidays is quite different in nature (Pg.com, 2015). There are different kinds of formats available in the globe nowadays such as:

v Manual or electronic formats

v List of individuals and groups

v Library data storage system

v Folders data keeping system

v Documents and list items inside the list

Electronic formats are the best of keeping information in a wide range; it is the modern way of keeping and sharing information. When the information is offered it needs electronic mail. MS word, excel or any kind of modern technology. On the other hand, when the data and information is offered in manual formats company uses written documents, manual book. Reports and other books format and so forth. For example: P&G has been using the real time link to provide their employees information to perform their activities (Pg.com, 2015).

TASK 3:

3.1: The analysis of information to identify patters and trends

Information is very fast today; it has been changing day by day even in seconds. Some information is customer related, some are clients, investors, owners, shareholders and stakeholders as well. By analyzing information companies can identify their patterns and trends for making good decision for organizational success. Good information always reduces the uncertainty in the operation of the business. Companies collect market data by different types of market scanning and market research. When a company analyzes the market information, they become able to improve their offerings existing in the market place, develop the standard and quality, increase the efficiency and decrease the production cost, introduce the innovative products in the market, adjust product prices. The information about the rivals in the market will obviously help the companies to know and understand the information and database system of those rivals (Pg.com, 2015). Customers are high demanding and search for reliable information.

Recent trends and patters of information

Every company needs to be updated for the better satisfaction of the target market (actual and potential customers). The recent information of P&G is that there are some many competitors in the FMCG and other products in their product line for this reason they are very much conscious of launching new and innovative offerings to their target so that they can sustain in the market by providing customer oriented information and rendering customer satisfaction as well. Early information always provides the real time information and data from reliable sources. These types of data can lead a company to increase the performances, compare the performance, and so on. There are various kinds of measures of performance of a company such as production efficiency, effectiveness, benchmark of standard, and son on that aid to identify the trends and patters of information (Niblett, 1984). By using the reliable information, venture can reduce per unit cost and become efficient in production of certain product, utilizes the available resources, decrease the cost of production etc. And at the same, organization can predict the future underlying needs wants and demands by analyzing information.

3.3: determination of the sources available to assist in analyzing data and information

Organizations get information from different internal and external sources. This information always aids the companies to take decisions for those companies and help them to accomplish their goals and objectives. There are different sources available that are used to analyze the data and information, they are given below (Niblett, 1984):

Organizational records as internal sources

Organizational financial positions, daily transactions, sales volume and other aspects related to accounting always help an organization to take future decisions. The profit and loss accounts, national and international trade accounts, accounting records provide data and information that are necessary for P&G.

External information sources

External information always affects the organizational activities in a great extent; there are different ways of getting external information such as newspapers, magazines, government’s journals and reports, national organizational records, information about the rivals, and so on. The information about the governmental tax and tariffs, environmental and business rules and regulations, safety and security measures, needs and wants of target market always helps and organization to draw a success story in the competitive market place (Sinha, 2001).

Information sources for example raw or unprocessed data, information and knowledge about customers and competitors and other stakeholders, technological resources, human resources always aid P&G to analyze their information (Sinha, 2001).

TASK 4:

3.2: evaluation of a range of decision making tools and techniques available to support a strategic decision

Easy access to huge information always guides an organization to success in a market place. There are different types of decision making tools and techniques available to support a strategic decision such as

v DSS (decision support system)

v ES (expert system)

v Data warehousing

v Data mining

v SWAT analysis

v CSF (critical success factor)

For the best results of the strategic decision making, companies conduct SWAT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threat) analysis, in the strength organization observe the HRM, attractive products, customer service etc, weakness such as inefficiency of communication, lack of information etc, opportunity such as possibility of new product development, increase of product demands etc and threats such as new rivals, limited resources etc to sustain in the market.

Advantages and limitations of SWAT

By analyzing this tool companies can determine the potential rivals in the market and take decision for further future offerings to target market. But it has a limitation too, most of the companies fail to finance to apply this tool and lack experts to conduct it.

In data warehousing, companies store data for next analyzing and decision making. Companies can easily search, find and retrieve data from data mining.

Advantages are: companies can provide a plenty of information according to customer demands as they have collected a lot of information and stored in it.

The most critical drawback of data warehousing is the most of the companies can’t have the advantages of advanced technology to keep it.

In the DSS data retrieval, model evaluation (model is the representation of the reality), and visualization of the results are performed. And in the expert system, complex tasks are done by the advent of new technology.

The clear advantages of DSS are that it saves time and money and works fast by using the digital technology. Managers can take decision very fast.

And the main drawback of it is the insufficiency of technological backup, improper financing, lack of expert people to manage and so on (Stead and Stead, 1992).

4.1: critical review of methods of evaluating management information within a company

Evaluation is always used for the effectiveness of the information system. P&G follows the observation methods of evaluating their MIS. The objectives of the information system will only be accomplished when they are analyzed and evaluated with other to measure the effectiveness such as process evaluation, output evaluation, effects evaluation and short-term impact evaluation etc. Three methods of evaluation of IM are as follows:

Balanced scorecard

It is a business strategy for the benefit and active management for the assessment of the delivery network of the company. There are some strategic analysis tools such as CS factor or critical success factor and value chain factor analysis. These are highly relied on the proper management of information. This method follows a sequence of performance and information management for example translate the vision, communicate and link, business information planning, then feedback and learning from the existing IMS. There are many advantages of it such as it measures the performance, saves time, indicate the technology etc.

Observation methods: systematic observation is called the best research method in the evaluation of information management. In P&G, there is a team or group of evaluation; they go where the employees are working, where employees providing services to clients, they observe their information system’s effectiveness and direct employees to do work effectively and efficiently (Stead and Stead, 1992).

Workshop methods: after organizing workshop within the organization with different types of people about methods used in the organization. Employees and core people in the organization present the good side and bad side of the current system of information. By using this, the managers and governing bodies of the P&G evaluate the functions and operations of the information system, their usability, capability, effectiveness and efficiency and modify the existing system.

TASK 5:

4.2: The evaluation of methods of developing information capture to inform and support strategic decision making

Every organization develops management of information system for effective and time demanding decision making. They use some methods of collecting data, this information should be evaluated effectively, and evaluation methods should be applied for the reliable and trusted information for business. Data governance confirms the availability, usability, safety, security and integration of trustworthy data. Improved data should be used to make improved decision for business. Companies should ensure the stable use of information (Stead and Stead, 1992).

Capturing information always helps to collect, refine and retrieval and share. It is the way of gathering information. And at the same time the methods of gathering and capturing information helps to make effective decisions (Kirkwood, 1997).

Information can be captured in different ways, they are listed below:

v Multiple networking methods

v Direct user input

v Ascent capture and

v Handwriting

Handwriting is a renowned method of capturing by maintaining information in time and in cost effective way. Data are stored in hard copy form in the handwriting. The main advantages of it are that it reduces the possibility of data to be corrupted, it is always in hardcopy form but it can be damaged by some ways.

Direct user input is an E-record capturing method that includes typing, pointing and clicking the screen. There are many advantages of it such as it records the information in digital way but it needs technology touch.

Ascent capture is a validation and indexing process to capture information such as E-doc, XML etc. It provides security of data and saves time but it also requires data technology.

4.3: Discussion of the processes for analyzing the impact of information on strategic decisions made

Analyzing is a way of monitoring data for the implementation of the objectives of an organization. Major analysis of information includes the data collection, collecting feedback from stakeholders, analyzing changes in the organization etc (Kirkwood, 1997). The process of analyzing information includes planning, designing, monitoring, collecting information, analyzing information and implementing certain action.

The information analysis makes floor for the P&G to develop objectives and distributes resources to accomplish these goals. The information system enables the organization it the goals are achieve or not. If not, proper research and development is needed to perform better.

DIKAR and ASHEN are used here to assess the quality of the information. Sometimes it needs to revise and implement new methods and techniques that include decisions, problem solution, creation of solution, judgement, and so on. These types of factors help an organization to solve their problems and analyzing their information system and ultimately take a time demanding decisions for organizational success (Kirkwood, 1997).

CONCLUSIONS

Management of information system lead P&G to bring a new horizon in the age of information and technology. Organizations cannot take profitable decisions until and unless they collect reliable and accurate information from their target market, internal and external sources. Information should be processed carefully to get the best results from the information and at the same time information should be kept safe and sound and secured (Kirkwood, 1997). P&G needs to develop their online information and interactive information management system to sustain in the competitive market place taking different innovative and customer centric approaches. So it is crystal clear that information is the heart of any venture (Pg.com, 2015).

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Strategic information management

INTRODUCTION