DESIGNING AND MANAGING INFORMATION

SYSTEMS

BARAK VALLEY CEMENTS LTD

Section A - Study Group 1

Aanchal Chowdhury (2021PGP001) Prahlad Sharma (2021PGP038)

Aditi Chourey (2021PGP008) Tahoorullah Shirqhi Mohammed
Omisha Chouhan (2021PGP036) (2021PGP056)
 COMPANY OVERVIEW
Barak Valley Cements Limited is a public limited company incorporated in 1999. The Company
started its commercial production in April 2001.
Reputed businesspeople promoted the Company in Northeast who have a vast experience in
different segments like plywood, Timber, Cement, Concrete Sleepers etc.
Presently, the Company is engaged in manufacturing cement of different grades and is
marketing its product under the brand name "Valley Strong Cement".
The Company is in Assam, and all the operations of the Company are concentrated in the
North-eastern region.
Products – 1. Ordinary Portland cement (OPC)
2. Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC)
Manufacturing by - Dry Process Rotary Kiln Technology with four stages Suspension Pre-
Heater
Target market – North-East Region (Assam, Mizoram, Tripura, and Southern part of
Meghalaya)
Customers - Individuals, Contractors, Builders, Institutions and Government agencies
(Director General of Supplies & Disposals (DGS&D), 19th Assam Rifles, Executive Engineer
Rural Development, ONGC, BSF, etc.).

Q Write a brief understanding of the problem and the requirements.

PROBLEMS
• Founded in 2001, the Company is currently performing most of its operations offline, including
financial paperwork, managing its supply chain operations, handling Human resources, and
supervising sales & marketing functions.
• The Company cannot increase the market share in the Northeast Region due to the lack of digital
technology in its Business Processes.
• As of 2021, the Company has its market only in four of the eight North-Eastern states of the country,
which is less when compared to big organisations that leverage technology for their smooth and
efficient business processes.
• Due to the inexistence of any Information System across the organisation, miscommunication
between the departments and the suppliers' relationship often gets hampered.
REQUIREMENTS
Safety Requirements - Frequent backup of the database
Security Requirements - Account ID and password, Auto time out of the session, Sign off
button, failed login attempts, encryption
Software Quality Attributes:

• Reliability & Correctness: Measure if the product is reliable to sustain any condition.
It should give consistent results. E.g., it accurately forecasted the demand, timely
scheduling of the orders for raw material supplies, immediate & correct response to
customer's grievance etc.
• Maintainability: Different versions of the product should be easy to maintain. For
development, it should be easy to add code to the existing system, should be easy to
upgrade for new features and new technologies from time to time. Maintenance
should be cost-effective and straightforward. The code should be modular, i.e., there
must be different modules related to other use cases, which would make it easy to
maintain.
• Usability: The application should have a user-friendly interface for both the customers
while placing orders, raising a query, or applying for grievances and for the employees
for referring to any information related to their respective departments. It should be
easy enough to be understood even by a non-technical person.
• Efficiency: The system should update information on a real-time basis. It should be
efficient enough to reduce human efforts by a significant percentage.
• Resilience: The system should be resilient to tackle malware attacks and hardware
defects. It should keep required backups to improve its resiliency.

Software & Hardware Requirements

Server:
Operating System: Windows 7 or higher/Mac OS 10.9 or higher
Web Server: Apache Tomcat ver. 7.0
Front-End Tools: Java/jdk 1.8.0 (JSP/Servlet)
Back-End Tools: Oracle SQL
Internet Browser:
Internet Explorer 11 and higher.
Firefox 51 and higher.
Chrome 56 and higher.
Edge (Windows 10 and higher)
 Safari 10 and higher
Processor: 5GHz or higher
RAM: 4GB or more
Hard drive: 500 GB or more

Client:
Operating System: Windows 7 or higher/Mac OS 10.9 or higher
Processor: 3GHz or higher
RAM: 4GB or more
Hard drive: 100 GB or more
Internet Browser:
Internet Explorer 11 and higher.
Firefox 51 and higher.
Chrome 56 and higher.
Edge (Windows 10 and higher)
Safari 10 and higher

Q Identify the objectives and sub-objectives of this information system analysis and design.

OBJECTIVES
Develop an Information System to manage and improve the Company's overall operations
and business functions

SUB OBJECTIVES
• Create a centralised system for all the Business Functions
• Develop an Information system that streamlines the business routines of the
organisation's Supply Chain Management, Human Resource Management, Sales &
Marketing, Financial Management and Manufacturing & Production
• Build an Executive Support System that would incorporate data from all the business
functions, which would help Senior Management in decision making & strategising

CONSTRAINTS
• Barak Valley Cements Ltd is a small company in only four states. Thus funds availability
will be a constraint
 • Most of the employees in the Company are comfortable with the existing processes,
and shifting to new technology will be difficult
• The first release of the software must be ready within 12 months

PLAN OF ACTION
• Design and implement the first phase of the new IS solution within a 9-month time
frame
• Make sure that the system development process does not hamper the existing
processes and operations of the Company
Q Make a feasibility study for this exercise and document it.

FEASIBILITY STUDY
Organisational Feasibility:
Following activities will help the organisation to achieve its overall objective of improvement
in general Business Processes:

• Reduction in Inventory & Production cost by using a Supply Chain Management

Information System
• The lower attrition rate, high employee satisfaction and simplified payroll, attendance
& appraisals by introducing an Employee Portal
• Increase in customer satisfaction by providing an online mode of payment and real-
time solution to the queries by introducing a chatbot feature
• Well managed sales data by providing a centralised Sales Management System that
would enable Senior Management to create future strategies for improving sales
• Centralised Repository to efficiently manage the database
Economic Feasibility:
The system can be considered economically feasible for any scenario where the anticipated
benefits are equal to or greater than the expected costs. Since the Company is developing an
information system for the first time, considerable investment will be required to introduce
the same. The ROI will be high as the implementation will benefit in the following ways:
1. Tangible Benefits:
• Improvement in relationship with suppliers which might lead to extra supply-side
discounts
• Reduction in the resources required which then can be used for productive work
• Decrease in the turnaround time for customers and increase in the customer base
• The decline in the attrition rate and reduction in hiring cost
2. Intangible Benefits:
• Improvement in decision-making process due to availability of real-time
consolidated data
• Increase in Employee satisfaction because of implementation of a transparent
Employee portal
 •Progress in the organisational processes and reduction in the time taken by the
workforce
3. Tangible Costs:
• Cost of computers, servers, and other hardware
• Cost of training the employees
• Cost of designing and development
4. Intangible Costs:
• Time is taken to plan and finalise the requirements from the IS
• Time invested in giving interviews and opinions to the system analyst
Technical Feasibility:
The system must be tested from a technological point of view. The designs are implemented
in the northeast, and the location needs to be considered carefully for the smooth availability
of the internet and other technical facilities. The area might be disaster-prone, and the data
centre must be safely procured. The systems should be analysed so that the support is
available 24*7 since Barak Valley Cements Ltd is not a technology company and might lack
the technological expertise.
Operational Feasibility:
The Company is very new to technology, primarily involved in fieldwork. The employees are
unique to any centralised information system and will face issues in any overwhelming
technology. The technology needs to be smooth, easy to use and error-free so that it excites
the employees and they do not have to undergo distress due to false information. The system
should be user friendly and high on operational value. It should be designed so that anyone
without any prior knowledge can go through various operations. Every system should be well
connected for easy data flow from one system to another.

Q Study the existing systems and identify the current documents that need to be reviewed.
STUDY OF EXISTING SYSTEM

EXISTING SYSTEM PROPOSED SYSTEM

Task Conduct all the business processes
of Barak Valley Cement using Excel
Spreadsheets, mails & hardcopies
Method Communication is done through e-
mails; data storage & processing is
done manually
When & How Daily: Manually enter purchase
orders, inventory status, daily
production target using excel
spreadsheets and e-mails
Conduct all the business
processes of Barak Valley
Cement using a digital platform
Immediate run time updates are
generated, the software does the
processing
Daily: Receive purchase orders,
inventory status, daily production
targets etc. through web-based
centralised software
EXISTING PROCESSES
The Company is currently performing most of its operations offline, leading to high inventory
& production costs due to a mismatch between demand prediction & production scheduling.
As per its latest reports, there is increased customer dissatisfaction as the Company cannot
perform Just-in-time deliveries. The Company has its market only in Mizoram, Tripura, and
the Southern part of Meghalaya, which is less compared to big organisations that leverage
technology for their smooth and efficient Operations. Since the production takes place only
in Assam and there are no other manufacturing units in the different parts of the North-
eastern region, the organisation finds it difficult to balance its supply and demand. Given the
coordination problems, the chances to expand in other states seems bleak.
Sales & Marketing:
Customers (Shop owners/ Dealers/ Agency Owners) place the purchase order (PO) through
mails or calls to the salespersons. Received POs are analysed and scanned by the Salesperson
and are stored in the folders. The Salesperson further communicates this order to Finance &
Operations team over mail. Based on the Operations team feedback, the Salesperson shares
the expected delivery date to the customer over mail or call. Customer shares the Payment
receipts over mail to Salesperson.
Sales Department maintains all the order related data, order status, payments status, delivery
status in excel files.
Based on the data maintained in files, the department carries out forecasting & predictions.

Human Resources:
No employee portal contains the basic details, payslips, and other information about the
organisation's hierarchy.

Supply chain Management:

After receiving the order from sales, the SCM team places the order of raw materials to its
suppliers & maintains its records in files. It also shares the order details of the warehouse &
quality team over mail. The Warehouse team manages the inventory and inward & outward
movement of materials in excel files. SCM receives the order status from vendors over mails
& communicates it to all other stakeholders. SCM manages the production plan into the files.
SCM maintains all the vendors' data, order-related data, production plans, inventory status in
files & folders.
Production & Manufacturing:
The production team makes the production plan after receiving the requirements from Sales.
It checks the inventory status of raw materials &, based on the situation, it shares raw
material requirements to the SCM team. It also shares the delivery status to Sales over mail.
The production team manages the manufacturing based on the plan & ensure the timely
completion of it. It ensures that manufacturing is according to the defined quality &
standards. It maintains the daily, weekly & monthly targets, operators' skill matrix, and
routine machines maintenance status in files & folders.

Finance:
Finance Department manages the flow of money within the organisation. It receives the PO
from Sales, analyses it & enters its data manually. It uses commonly used software to generate
an invoice. The system generates Invoices based on the input data like customer details,
delivery address, item name, nos—Quantities & rate, etc. The team then receives the
payment receipt against the Invoice over mail. It also generates PO for its suppliers and shares
it to SCM over mails. It also manages all its PO data, invoice data, payment status, assets data,
the flow of funds & other all financial operations details into complex files & folders.

DOCUMENTS AND PROCEDURES REVIEW

It is one of the preliminary and essential steps for an analyst to understand the client policies
and procedures.

1) Company Policies and Procedures Documents

Company policy and procedures are set to establish the rules of conduct within an
organisation, outlining the responsibilities of both employees and employers. Company policy
and methods aim to protect the rights of workers and the business interests of employers.
It also lists the exceptions and "what-if" questions for employees and employers. It also
ensures that every employee has complied with the rules & regulations, lists the
repercussions of not achieving those.
The organisation structure and how the different entities are linked together can be included
in the extension document of the organisation.
It is essential from IS perspective to determine connections between different offices and
entities. It also helps to layout the general architecture which needs to be followed across the
organisation IS.

2) Accounting Schema and General T Codes

Recording all business transactions (prior postings and settlements from internal accounting)
in a software system that is fully integrated with all the other operational areas of a company
ensures that the accounting data is always complete and accurate. Hence, it is essential to
know for IS so that the correct accounting processes can be imitated and implemented within
systems.
General T codes can be defined for different business processes. It will help to differentiate
the business process in terms of financial accounting and avoid overlapping the same.

3) Compliance and Fiscal Policy Documents

Compliance documents are necessary for devising the information systems for accurate tax
calculations as per government directions. It ensures that any fraudulent practices are not
being performed at the organisation. It also provides a comprehensive document listing the
different tax rates for various business components. It helps information systems to know
that what are compliance policies which an employee needs to adhere to.
It will help the information systems gather all such information and imitate and implement
the tax calculations in the financial accounting systems to become complete and accurate.

4) General Customer Questionnaire, FAQs

FAQs and General Customer questionnaire covers the questions which can come up or
generally comes up while solving some customer's problem. It provides a comprehensive list
of all the probable questions which a customer can ask at any stage of the service, i.e., new
connection, existing connection or discontinuing the relationship. From the IS perspective, it's
crucial for designing the customer service piece and devising the strategy to redirect the
queries to different and appropriate departments.

5) Employee HR Policy and Procedure Manual

The HR policy manual consists of norms of the Company in recruiting employees, information
regarding the employee compensations and benefits based upon positions of the employees.
This must be digitalised, which helps us to integrate the employee goals defined and set by
the management and track them from time to time. Also, the system can be designed to
calculate and include the incentives based on the performance.
The primary roles and responsibilities of HR that can be digitally integrated includes:
• Payroll Management
• Organisational management
• Time Management
 • Workforce planning
• Benefits and compensation management

6) Pricing Schema
The details regarding the price must be studied. This gives an idea about the price break up.
Having an idea about the costs that apply for different types of products provided by the
Company and fees charged to the customers based on the parameters like the distance from
adjacent distribution locations would save time in the billing process. It will also help
Information systems predetermine and give the final price to the customer (along with price
break up) based upon his requirement, which will be further integrated with e- payments.

7) Customer Order Placement Procedure Manual

Studying the process that the Company currently follows when they receive an order request
(like who all are the stakeholders that must be notified and what procedures have to be
followed) will help us understand what features have to be included in the information
system.

8) Credit Term Policy and Payments Policy

Every Company has different policies regarding collecting receivables and payments of
payables. So, various accounting policies depend on these parameters. So, these must be
studied before developing a system for general ledger and accounting. Digital integration of
these terms with accounting systems would be helpful to design for notifications to alert us
about the deadlines.

Q Identify stakeholders you seek to gather information and design an interview questionnaire
to collect data.

STAKEHOLDERS INTERVIEW
Major Stakeholders of the Company include

• Managing Director
• Sales Director
• SCM Head
• Production Head
• Human Resource Manager

QUESTIONNAIRE
• Managing Director
1. What fundamental parameters/matrix do you look for in daily and long-term
decision-making?
2. What is the purpose of computerising the existing processes? Increase market
share or reduce compliance time or optimise operations?
3. What is the roadmap of the Company, i.e. vision of the Company, and where does
it see itself five years down the line?
4. What is the estimated budget allocated for developing the information system?
5. What is the maximum time the complete system needs to be up and running?

• Sales Director
1. What is the structure of the sales channel/ distribution strategy? How many
regional offices do you have & how do you manage them?
2. Does the pricing strategy consider changes in cost structure? If not, what are the
key parameters?
3. What is the process to check the status of the distribution of cement SKUs?
4. What is the daily/weekly/monthly/annual sales generated at the company level,
and what are the key SKUs?
5. Who are your customers, and how do you engage with them?
6. How do you gather the feedback and respond to the customers' grievances?

• SCM Head
1. Who/ how many people are responsible for supply chain management & logistics
management?
2. What are some common & frequent errors/ mistakes in the SCM process?
3. Is there any process to manage the inward & outward movement of goods?
4. What are the measures you take to control high inventory & reduce inventory
cost?
5. How do you ensure a continuous flow of material into the production?
6. How do you place orders with the suppliers, and how do you decide order setting
frequency?

• Production Head
1. What is the batch size & lead time for the batch production?
2. Is there any frequent downtime in the whole production process?
3. How is communication between Production & Supply Chain departments carried
out?

• Human Resource Manager

1. What is the current structure of the HR department? What are the critical
approving authorities for the HR department?
2. What are the existing Human resource problems you face at the company level?
3. How is the payroll system in the organisation? What is the frequency and basis of
promotion for employees?
 4. What is the onboarding process and offboarding process?
Q Identify the functional areas in the overall organisation that needs to be computerised.

FUNCTIONAL AREAS
1. Sales Department - Its main task is to attract more and more dealers and builders to
buy Cement units from the organisation. It helps the customers to place an order with
the firm, attend to their requirements, listen to their feedback, and resolve their
grievances.
Problems:
• Difficulty in manually analysing and keeping track of sales data.
• Manual collection of feedback and grievance redressal is more costly and time-
consuming.
• An inefficient system for queries and complaints frustrates the customers—no
provision for instant query resolution.
Solution: Introducing an online portal that will enable data collection digitised. It will
eliminate the paperwork involved, reduce the time taken to process the orders, and
allow access to the sales data in an easy, hassle-free manner. Enables customers to
contact the sales representative smoothly.

2. Supply Chain Department – The main task of the SCM team is to maintain all the
vendors' data, order-related data, production plans and inventory status. It needs to
keep track of the inventory on a real time basis.
Problems:
• No system ensures continuous stock flow into the business without
unnecessary interruptions.
• No platform effectively integrates suppliers, production departments,
transporters, warehouses, and customers so that the right product or service
is distributed in the right quantities, to proper locations and at the appropriate
time.
• Delivery lead time is very high, which results in customer dissatisfaction.
Solution: A digital platform that integrates all the stakeholders of the supply chain
process, forecasts demand accurately, helps in the scheduling of orders, and keeps
track of the inventory on a real-time basis.

3. Manufacturing & Production Department – The Production & Manufacturing

department manages the manufacturing based on the plan & ensure its timely
completion. It ensures the manufacturing according to the defined quality & safety
standards. It maintains the daily, weekly & monthly targets, skill matrix of operators,
and routine machines maintenance status.
Problems:
 • No digital system to maintain raw material inventory and finished goods
inventory.
• Data is maintained on paper or excel files.
• The production process is not streamlined. Waste reduction is difficult.
• High unplanned downtime.
Solution: A software tool to automate manufacturing operations on the shop floor,
from production planning, stock availability tracking, allocation of resources, the
delegation of tasks to production routing. It will also integrate these processes and
provide the Production Department with complete, real-time visibility of all
procedures through one system.

4. Human Resources – This department takes care of the hierarchical structure of the
firm's employees. It is responsible for the payrolls, recruitment, onboarding,
promotions, and addressing employees' concerns.
Problems:
• Maintaining manual records for all the employees is difficult
• Lack of an automated real-time system for onboarding, training and payroll
and leave management
Solution: Create a dashboard where employees can check their basic details, payoffs,
and leaves.

5. Finance - This department manages the funds of the organisation. It decides where to
raise funds and make prudent investments to maximise returns and make the
organisation profitable. (Assuming that books of accounts are maintained on Tally)
Problem:
• Asset-Liability mismatch because the team has no access to the centralised
database of the loans disbursed
• Increase in no. of NPAs because of no control over the repayment database
Solution: Centralised database of all the activities be loan amount, salaries paid,
investments made etc.

Q Make a phase-wise (with a time plan) computerisation of the organisation. Select the areas
which you feel should be prioritised.

PHASE WISE PLAN

Phase 1 - Sales Management System
Phase 2 - Supply Chain Management System
Phase 3 - Human Resource Management System
Phase 4 - Finance Management System
Phase 5 - Executive Support System
We focus on taking the Sales Operations online and having a centralised system for all the
locations.
Features to be Introduced in Phase 1
• Customer Login Portal
• Purchase Order Generation
• Order status (Order Current Status, Expected Delivery Date, Payment Status, Delay
Notification)
• Sales Data Dashboard (Total sales generated from different locations, Revenue
Generated, No. of Customers, most sold SKUs etc.)
• Sales forecasting and prediction based on consumer trends and sales data
• Customer Feedback and Grievance Redressal System

TIMELINE

Activity Duration (Days)

Phase 1 360
Planning & Feasibility
45
Analysis
Requirement Gathering &
60
Existing System Analysis
System Design &
120
Development
Integration and Testing 30
Implementation 90
Phase 2 120
Phase 3 120
Phase 4 120
Phase 5 90
Review, Analysis &
60
Continuous Improvement
Q Compare the budget requirements (INR) for bespoke information system development in
contrast to purchasing existing software from the vendors. Highlight the pros and cons of
both the alternatives.

BUDGET REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS

Comparison of bespoke information system development in contrast to purchasing an
existing software from the vendors

Bespoke Development:

PROS CONS
• Software may be customised to meet • Because everything will be built from
the demands of a firm. the ground up, the cost will be higher.

• In terms of accommodating • The system will be less reliable

modifications, software development because it will be replaced with a new
will be highly adaptable. system that has never been tested.

• It will be simple for users because they

will be participating in the
development process and may provide
ongoing input to the development
team.
 Existing Software:

PROS CONS

• Compared to bespoke development, the • There will be a lot of redundant

price will be lower here. features that the Company will not
require.
• The software will be reliable because
many people will have used it. • It will not be feasible to provide new
features following the firm's needs.
• It will be simple for users because they
will participate in the development
process and may provide ongoing input to
the development team.

Q Compare the budget requirements (INR) for outsourcing the entire software development
exercise in contrast to making it in-house. Highlight the pros and cons of both the
alternatives.
Comparison of in-house development in contrast to outsourcing the development from
the vendors:
In-house development:
PROS
• Cultural fit and engagement
• Communication that is effective
• Improved agility
Outsourcing Software:
PROS
• Significant cost savings
• Scalability is simple
• Quick time to market
• Workflows and methods that have been
proven to work
• Top-tier talent
CONS
• Exorbitant prices
• Finding qualified IT experts is difficult.
Staff turnover is high.
• Recruitment and onboarding take a long
time.
CONS
• Because everything will be built from the
ground up, and the cost will be higher.
• The system will be less reliable because it
will be replaced with a new system that
has never been tested.
Q Based on the comparisons done in questions 8 and 9, find the option that
makes it financially more feasible.

FINANCIAL FEASIBILITY OPTIONS

Based on the graph, purchasing existing software appears to be a financially viable alternative
at first glance, but this option comes with user license costs. As a result, if the Company
expands in the future, it will have to pay for more licenses, which would be costly.
Option, as a result, bespoke development appears to be a more financially viable option,
including scalability hopes in the future.
Q Identify any two business processes in the organisation. For the identified processes, draw
the activity diagram. Any online tool like MS Visio can draw the activity diagram.

ACTIVITY DIAGRAM

Diagram 1: Activity Diagram for Order Processing

Diagram 2: Activity Diagram for Raw Material Procurement
Q Draw the Swimlane diagram for the same two processes as identified in question 11.

SWIMLANE DIAGRAM

Diagram 3: Swimlane Diagram for Order Processing

Diagram 4: Swimlane Diagram for Raw Material Procurement