JAMHURIYA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

CENTER FOR GRADUATE STUDIES

SUBJECT: BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS

ASSIGNMENT ONE: TWO QUESTIONS

DR, PROFESSOR: MOHAMUD AHMED JIMALE

SEMISTER ONE: MBA

FULL NAME: MOHAMED SALAD IBRAHIM

ID: MBA20012

16 TUESDAY-2020
ASSIGNMENT ONE:
QUESTION ONE:
1. Select 10 business industries (that are functional in Somalia), then in a tabular format,
describe how technology could enhance their performance and profitability. (Homework-
graded)

No. Name: Industry How technology could enhance their performance and
profitability
1. Transport Industry Modern transportation is currently experiencing major
changes thanks to transformative transportation technologies.
Let’s take a look at 6 transportation technologies sure to
impact the trucking and transportation industries forever.
1. Customized Transportation
You can easily access your favorite vehicle and they
contact you where you are.
Such services are provided:
 Rikaab
 Safar
2. Ticketing system
All local Airlines use Ticketing system.
They provide users to the local Agencies and each
agency has an access directly to book and confirm
his/her ticket to their passengers.
An Airline office has the entire passengers list those
are booked or confirmed different agencies.
They have their Names, Contact numbers, if they are
Adult, Child, and Infant, also they have their amount
of money for each person.
So every agent doesn’t need to come directly the airline
office.
  They reduce time,
 They offer same service for different airline
 They have updated schedule for airline destination
 They pay through online after confirmation their
passengers
 They can send an SMS through their system manifest
(list of passengers)
2. Education Industry Education is one of the frontiers of technology and is
growing with technology every day. It’s important that
education be able to keep up with the progress happening in
technology by reaching students in a way that adequately
helps them to prepare for the future. The students in our
classrooms today are meant to be the thought leaders,
business people, teachers, and investors of tomorrow, so
technology should be used to prepare them. This includes
the use of gadgets in teaching, such as computers, mobile
phones, and tablets, as well as the use of the internet as a
medium of learning.
Examples of new technology applications abound. Most
institutions have made major investments in the new
technologies, distributing computing capacity across their
campuses, linking faculty with students as well as with one
another, and generally providing the necessary IT
infrastructure that is a precondition to faculty involvement.
Universities enjoy a dominant position in the higher
education.
First, the demand for IT-based teaching and learning
programs will grow substantially, probably exponentially,
over the next decade.
Second, IT will change teaching and learning profoundly, no
matter what the response of traditional higher education
institutions. IT represents a fundamental change in the basic
technology of teaching and learning. The transformation will
take a long time, long enough for critics to claim that perhaps
higher education can thrive without fundamentally changing
itself in response to the new technology. If traditional colleges
and universities do not exploit the new technologies, other
nontraditional providers of education will be quick to do so in
an economy that is itself increasingly knowledge-based; the
new information technologies offer an economical means of
providing the continuous "market," but they are beginning to
feel the impact of disruptive technologies such as
 Distance education,
 Online admission
 Online examination
 Online attendance
 Publication papers through online
 Access students result through online
IT'S POTENTIAL
Most discussions of the possible advantages of IT-based
teaching and learning strategies begin with a weighing of the
relative advantage of technology against the inherent
capabilities of faculty. What can IT contribute to increasing
learning productivity? Here two general propositions:

1. IT offers economies of scale: After a (sometimes

large) front- end investment, the cost of usage per
incremental student is apt to be low. Moreover, access
to very large amounts of information can be obtained
at low incremental cost.
2. IT offers mass customization: Technology allows
faculty to accommodate individual differences in
 student goals, learning styles, and abilities, while
providing improved convenience for both students and
faculty on an "any time, any place" basis.

3. Food Industry/Food In today's world of global markets and stiff competition in

processing every product along with increasing consumer demand, it
becomes imperative for companies to explore ways to
improve their productivity in terms of maintaining safety,
using sustainable packaging materials, implementing flexible
and standardized technology, and adopting proven
management principles.
So in Somalia we have received a diaspora those are come
back their own home, they come up new service for food
industry specifically restaurants.
They have an app, freely downloadable to any mobile
technology, so customers can order easy with visible and
different type of foods with indicate their price.
So they benefit they can serve their customer easily and they
have a record to their customers and they make follow up.
4. Health care Industry With improvements in information technology, it is
becoming easier to reform the health sector. Medical offices
are now able to share medical information with each other,
and they can get your health data from your previous
doctors. This makes it possible for timely care to be
delivered, as well as for costs to be reduced.
The healthcare industry has developed a dependence on
information technology (IT) for maintaining and improving
both clinical and business operations.
Whether IT is used for office automation or for reducing
medical errors, there are five constants that routinely
influence the successful integration of IT in healthcare.
1. Recording the patient information
 2. Reporting to the needed doctors
3. Analyzing and checking patients through investigating
his/her patient’s medicine or drugs.
4. Re -sending patients report to the pharmacy
5. He/she offers patient’s drug
6. The doctor controls and tells his/her patient how to use
these drugs.
So all these process they are automotive they use technology.
They can benefit:
They can serve more patient for differ their needs
They can easily control their patient
They can easily control their inventory
5. Telecommunication Enhancement of an organization's communication capabilities
Industry may influence performance through improved strategic
decision making, better coordination of strategic actions and
by facilitating learning from strategic initiatives. Accordingly,
the paper investigates the effects of internal communication
through use of computer networks, Intranet, and external
communication via the Internet in association with
autonomous and participatory strategic decision making
approaches and strategic planning. 
They develop conceptual model that links CRMs with
performance in Somalia telecommunication companies such
Hormuud Telecommunication.
They offer mobile internet, they use as advisement as to
deliver their service to their customers and follow up
It’s Potential
The understanding of the nature of customer portfolios assists
to make future decisions. So, mining profitability of the
customers will make huge advantage for managers to make
their future decisions.
 1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer relationship management (CRM) is an approach to
managing a company's interactions with current and future
customers. It often involves using technology to organize,
automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service,
and technical support.
The CRM systems can also give customer-facing staff
detailed information on customers’ personal information,
purchase history, buying preferences and concerns. It is one
of the most important divisions in any company. So, CRM
directly communicate with customers for managing
interaction between company and the customer. The CRM
databases include current information and transactions of the
customers. It has direct link with Data-ware house. Generally,
mining part is handling through Data-ware house. So,
Integration between CRM and Data-ware house is most
important.
2. RFM Variables (Recency, Frequency, Monetary)
The RFM stands for recency, Frequency and Monetary value.
RFM analysis is a marketing technique used for analyzing
customer behavior such as how recently a customer has
purchased (recency), how often the customer purchases
(frequency), and how much the customer spends (monetary).
It is a useful method to improve customer segmentation by
dividing customers into various groups for future
personalization services and to identify customers who are
more likely to respond to promotions
Finally, the Telecom operators’ activity consists of gathering
and managing a large amount of information and data. Thus,
millions of people, in millions of places can perform tens or
hundreds of transactions in a short period resulting in billions
 of events to be recorded. In order to handle such an enormous
quantity of data, special analyses methods need to be
involved. These have appeared and grown at the same pace
with the information technology.
6. News Media Industry Over the last decade, the Internet has become one of the most
popular vehicles facilitating a variety of communication and
information-sharing tasks worldwide. Its growing popularity
as a new medium of communication has resulted in changes
in use of traditional media.
The integration of networked information and communication
technologies (ICTs) in the news gathering and dimension
process is the likely to affect how fast news travels, how
audience first hear about particular news items, how many
people ultimately find out about news events, and how
individuals follow up on news items of personal interest.
7. Music Industry Organizations such as Open Music Initiative have already
started to explore these possibilities.
In the future, the interaction of the two affiliated and
unaffiliated dyads in online music markets may divulge
coordinated rules for CD pricing and controlling over access
to digital catalogs.
They create online pages, they upload their music through
online, and they customized their target customers needed.
They compete quality HD videos and sound creating and
musical instrument using different software.
Every singer has its own site to upload his/her songs.
There are also local channels those have storages to all songs
of the different singers and they have an authorized to share
their customers easily.
Such channels Astaan Music under Astaan TV.

8. Hospitality Industry examined the future of information technology in the

hospitality industry. A chief theme emerging from the think
tanks is that the successful hospitality purveyor of the future
will be the one that can use technology to meet the customer's
needs on the customer's terms. That means supplying
disparate information relating to the customer's travel desires
and being able to do so instantaneously—whenever the guest
decides to make the inquiry. While hospitality firms will not
be able to count on blind loyalty, they will be able to use
technology to learn enough about their customers to
continually meet their changing needs and desires.
Since customers will be able to find nearly any kind of
information via the internet, intermediaries will need to
develop ways of packaging information to make it more
valuable to customers. Likewise, destination-based companies
will have to assemble a portfolio of potential experiences and
match those to the experiences desired by a customer. All of
this will require not only technology, but excellently trained
employees who know how to use the technology to add value
to the customer's travel experience. 
So in Somalia we have one Hospitality service in Mogadishu,
(SAHAL HOSPITALITY SERVICE) they don’t have enough
technology to develop their performance and increase their
employee’s productivity.
They use only accounting software and body-bus serial
numbers when they print out as to differentiate their
Departure and Arrival passengers and their cargo
QUESTION TWO:

2. Discuss how technology could improve the five functions of Managements, (Planning,
organizing, leading, coordinating, controlling). Which management function benefits IT
the most, which function benefits the list?

INTRODUCTION

The effects of information technology developments on the traditional roles of managers over the
past decades have been extraordinary, especially when we consider the numerous changes these
developments have brought to the global environment of business.

The following paragraphs briefly describes managerial roles and functions dating back to the
Industrial Revolution and Scientific Management era, with transitions up to the present
technological and service-oriented market economies in which the use of information technology
(IT) and knowledge have become vital tools for survival, growth, the building of competitive
advantage, and success in achieving organizational goals. The paper examines the effects of
information technology (IT) developments on the role of managers using the five fundamental
functions of management theory: planning, organizing, controlling, coordinating and leading. 

At the most fundamental level, management is a discipline that consists of a set of five general
functions: planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. These five functions are part of a
body of practices and theories on how to be a successful manager.

1. PLANNING:

When you think of planning in a management role, think about it as the process of choosing
appropriate goals and actions to pursue and then determining what strategies to use, what actions to
take, and deciding what resources are needed to achieve the goals.
It’s Potential Information Technology

With the help of computers, people have produced more data in the last 30 years than in the
previous 5,000 years combined. Companies today make sizable investments in information
technology to help them manage this overwhelming amount of data, convert the data into
knowledge, and deliver it to the people who need it. In many cases, however, the companies do
not reap the desired benefits from these expenditures. Among the typical complaints from senior
executives are that the company is spending too much and not getting adequate performance and
payoff from IT investments, these investments do not relate to business strategy, the firm seems
to be buying the latest technology for technology’s sake, and communications between IT
specialists and IT users are poor.

The goal is to develop an integrated, company-wide technology plan that balances business
judgment, technology expertise, and technology investment. IT planning requires a coordinated
effort among a firm’s top executives, IT managers, and business-unit managers to develop a
comprehensive plan. Such plans must take into account the company’s strategic objectives and
how the right technology will help managers reach those goals.

Technology management and planning go beyond buying new technology. Today companies are
cutting IT budgets so that managers are being asked to do more with less. They are implementing
projects that leverage their investment in the technology they already have, finding ways to
maximize efficiency and optimize utilization.

To get the most value from IT, companies must go beyond simply collecting and summarizing
information. Technology planning involves evaluating the company’s goals and objectives and
using the right technology to reach them. IT managers must also evaluate the existing
infrastructure to get the best return on the company’s investment in IT assets. Knowledge
management focuses on sharing an organization’s collective knowledge to improve productivity
and foster innovation. Some companies establish the position of chief knowledge officer to head
up KM activities.

2. ORGANIZING:
This process of establishing worker relationships allows workers to work together to achieve their
organizational goals.

Organizing is the function of management which follows planning. It is the process of

establishing orderly uses for all resources within the management system of the organization. It
is a function in which the synchronization and combination of human, physical, financial, and
information resources takes place for the achievement of the results. Organizing function is
essential because it facilitates administration as well as the functioning of the organization.

It’s Potential Information Technology

The net result of technological change for all organizations is a greater requirement for strategic
planning. All of us must continually ask the question "What do we have to do now to attain our
objective tomorrow?" Through this process we can anticipate changes, including those brought
about by technology, evaluate the various alternatives available to us to cope with those changes,
and be prepared for the future as it arrives.

Forms of aggregating – The essence of aggregating in the process of organizational structuring is

a result of the need to control, coordinate, and communicate, which implies linkages on vertical
and horizontal bases. Vertical aggregating is suitable for large organizations, with a long
hierarchical chain, as well as for organizations with stable and simple environment and routine
technology. The aim of vertical aggregating is to enable top bottom coordination in organization
through different levels of management structure, strong control, and two-way communication.
However, an environment which is turbulent and also the complex technology need horizontal
coordination of activities. Vertical aggregating with formal authority and horizontal aggregating,
as its complement, is a way of achieving internal and external efficiency of an integral totality.

Technology – It enables transformation of organizational inputs into outputs and it is an

important determinant of the internal efficiency of the organization. Technology includes
technical equipment for manufacturing, knowledge and ability for using the equipment, and
working activity necessary for the transformation process. Considering the relationship between
technical complexity of the organization and its structural characteristics, there are three groups
of the organizations. The first group consists of the organizations which are having individual or
small-lot production. In these organization the technology is universal, the technological process
is subject to frequent changes, and they have a way of production which is characterized by a
low level of centralization, a small number of hierarchy levels, informal proceedings, and verbal
communication, which implies an organic organizational structure. The second group consists of
the organizations with large-lot and mass production. In these organizations the activities are
routine, the technological process is complex and not easy to change, there is a high level of
standardization and specialization, and more hierarchy levels in the organization structure having
a high level of formalization and routine distribution channels. The third group consists of the
organizations with continually-process production. In these organizations the working process is
continual in a certain production cycle, the operations and procedures are synchronized, the
production is highly automated, technical complexity is at the highest level, centralization is low,
communicating is verbal, and formalization is on a low level. All of these characteristics imply
an organic structure of the organization.

3. LEADING/DIRECTING

This function involves articulating a vision, energizing employees, inspiring and motivating people
using vision, influence, persuasion, and effective communication skills.

The directing function is concerned with leadership, communication, motivation and supervision
so that the employees perform their activities in the most efficient manner possible, in order to
achieve the desired goals.

The Leadership element involves issuing of instructions and guiding the subordinates about
procedures and methods.

The communication must be open both ways so that the information can be passed on to the
subordinates and the feedback received from them.

Motivation is very important since highly motivated people show excellent performance with
less direction from superiors.
Supervising subordinates would lead to continuous progress reports as well as assure the
superiors that the directions are being properly carried out.

It’s Potential Information Technology

Customers today tend to demand more and more at a lower cost. In an internationalized and
competitive environment this puts considerable pressure on organizations and calls for
cooperation between managers and employees to reach goals, become flexible and constantly
improve products and processes that fulfill these higher demands.

The pressure has resulted in organizations adopting new organizational and management forms
and strategies as well as introducing innovative technology, to increase flexibility, employee
performance and competitiveness.

4. STAFING/COORDINATING

Staffing is the function of hiring and retaining a suitable work-force for the enterprise both at
managerial as well as non-managerial levels. It involves the process of recruiting training,
developing, compensating and evaluating employees and maintaining this workforce with proper
incentives and motivations. Since the human element is the most vital factor in the process of
management, it is important to recruit the right personnel.

This function is even more critically important since people differ in their intelligence,
knowledge, skills, experience, physical condition, age and attitudes, and this complicates the
function. Hence, management must understand, in addition to the technical and operational
competence, the sociological and psychological structure of the workforce.

It’s Potential Information Technology

The coordination of information technology (IT) management presents a challenge to firms with
dispersed IT practices. Decentralization may bring flexibility and fast response to changing
business needs, as well as other benefits, but decentralization also makes systems integration
difficult, presents a barrier to standardization, and acts as a disincentive toward achieving
economies of scale. As a result, there is a need to balance the decentralization of IT management
to business units with some centralized planning for technology, data, and human resources.
Here we explore three major mechanisms for facilitating interunitcoordination of IT
management: structural design approaches, functional coordination modes, and computer-based
communication systems.

5. CONTROLING

The function of controlling consists of those activities that are undertaken to ensure that the
events do not deviate from the pre-arranged plans. The activities consist of establishing standards
for work performance, measuring performance and comparing it to these set standards and taking
corrective actions as and when needed, to correct any deviations.

According to Koontz & O’Donnell, “Controlling is the measurement and correction

performance activities of subordinated in order to make sure that the enterprise objectives and
plans desired to obtain them as being accomplished.”

If all personnel always did what was best for the organization, control — and even management
— would not be needed. But, obviously individuals are sometimes unable or unwilling to act in
the organization’s best interest, and a set of controls must be implemented to guard against
undesirable behavior and to encourage desirable actions.

The controlling function involves:

 Establishment of standard performance.
 Measurement of actual performance.
 Measuring actual performance with the pre-determined standard and finding out the
deviations.
 Taking corrective action.

It’s Potential Information Technology

To ensure secure operations of information systems and thus safeguard assets and the data stored
in these systems, and to ensure that applications achieve their objectives in an efficient manner,
an organization needs to institute a set of policies, procedures, and technological measures,
collectively called controls.
IS controls may be designed to:

1. Prevent an error or an attack from taking effect

2. Detect a violation

3. Detect and correct an exceptional situation.

Information systems controls are classified as:

1. General controls - controls applying to the whole of an organization IS activity

2. Application controls - controls which are specific to a given application (payroll)

Administrative Controls

Administrative controls aim to ensure that the entire control framework is instituted,

continually supported by management, and enforced with proper procedures, including audits.

1. Administration controls include:

2. Published controls policy

3. Formal procedures

4. Screening of personnel

5. Continuing supervision of personnel

6. Separation of duties

Systems Development and Maintenance Controls

Internal IS auditors should be involved through the entire systems development process. They
should:
 1. Participate in major milestones and sign off on the appropriate deliverables. They need to
ensure that the system is secure, and also auditable.

2. Participants in the post implementation review that follows the system being placed in
operation.

3. Must check that the appropriate system documentation is developed and maintained

4. During systems maintenance, ensure that only authorized changes are made to the system
and that the appropriate version of the system goes into operation

Operations Controls

Operations controls are the policies, procedures, and technology established to ensure that data
centers are operated in a reliable fashion. Included among these controls are:

1. Controls over access to the data center

2. Control over operations personnel

3. Control over maintenance of computer equipment

4. Control over archival storage

REFERENCES:

1. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-control-function-of-management/ - article-authors

2. https://clutejournals.com/index.php/RBIS/article/view/4454

Traditional and Virtual Performance Management Functions In The Age Of Information

Technology (Bahaudin Mujtaba, Donovan A. McFarlane,)