Information System for Managers

Answer 1
Enterprise resource planning
Enterprise resources planning system is the most important enterprise systems currently being
used. Enterprise resource planning system consists of four fundamental modules which are
manufacturing, finance and accounting, sales and marketing, and human resource.
They are as follows:
• Finance and Accounting Module: It include the following:
➢ General ledger accounting: Use for recording all the business transactions
occurring across the organization.
➢ Accounts payable and receivable: Data is pertained to vendor payments is
recorded, along with cash and monies received from customer.
➢ Asset accounting: It is used for mentioning data about transaction involved for
fixed assets.
➢ Funds monitoring: In these revenues and expenditures are monitored, and also
planning and monitoring g budgets.
➢ Governance and risk: Use for governing the organization’s regulatory
requirements. Through this the firm can compline their organization with
various laws and regulations.
➢ Overhead cost controlling: Organization can allocate, monitor, and assess the
overhead cost that has been incurred.
➢ Activity-based costing: Through this function, firm is allowed to charge
overheads to activities such as sales, operations and customer management,
and obtain an analysis of overheads.
➢ Profitability analysis: Organization can view profits from different product
lines and departments.
➢ Business planning and budgeting: Helps in observing dependencies between
profit and loss, and the balance sheet and cash flows, and create plans for
budgets.
➢ Cash managements: Helps in having a clear view of firm’s liquidity; both in
terms of current status and future flows.
➢ Credit management: Helps in having a clear view of credits allocated,
pending, management and control.

• Human resource management: It include the following:

➢ Workforce process management: In this data about employees are stored
which includes performance, benefits and work records.
➢ Management self-service: In this managers can view the profile of employees
to find out top performers and those with specific skills, calculate cost
associated with employees, and estimate salary enhancements and budgets.
 ➢ Enterprise compensation management: In this module we have a consolidated
data regarding salaries, benefits, bonus awards, salary trends, salary
adjustments, budgets and planning, and compensation management.
➢ E-Recruitment: Tracking candidates for employment through online database,
notifications and hiring facilities.
➢ Organisational Management: Helps in analysing the structure of the
organization in terms of reporting and functional hierarchy.
➢ Organisational learning: Planning for training of employees will become easy
as managers can access the qualifications and skills within their workforce.

• Manufacturing and Operation: It include the following:

➢ Production, planning and control: Having data about production related
activities like raw material, sales forecast, production schedule and many
more.
➢ Material management: It manages inventories of both consumable and non-
consumable items in the firm.
➢ Plant maintenance: Having data about the firm plants such as plant equipment,
maintenance schedules and many more.

• Sales and Marketing: It include the following:

➢ Sales management: It manages sales forces by keeping data on sales force
distribution, sales calls, sale contacts and so on.
➢ Marketing management: This modules assist in planning for campaigns, costs
of campaigns and analysing competitor data.
➢ Distribution management: It helps in keeping track of product distribution
centres, the needs of various zones and warehouse.
These are the four modules that helps in assessing Enterprise resource planning in the
organization.

Cons of Implementing the Enterprise resource planning

Enterprise resource planning is a very complex process that effects the entire organisation. It
results in a shift in working mechanism by moving on to automatic from manual.
Here are a list of challenges faced while implementing Enterprise resource planning:
• Selection of enterprise resource planning vendors: It is essential to implement the
right resources because it helps in achieving productivity gains as now a days it the
business environment is very competitive. So, it is essential to do a detail study about
enterprise resource planning applications before moving forward.
• Tenacity and commitment from top management: Top management has the decision
making power and they are the key members for any organization while implementing
enterprise resource planning. So, if there is any delay or lack of seriousness in their
part, it will result in ineffective decision and delay in operations.
 • Proper and adequate training: It is essential to train employees as a firm can’t have
unskilled or semiskilled staff in the firm as it will result in downgrading of
productivity.
• Implementation Time: Firms need to understand that everything requires time and
implementing enterprise resource planning will take time because they will have to
implement it step by step like initiating, analysing, configuring, validating, deploying,
and optimizing business process.
• Proper planning and management: It is essential to properly plan before implementing
any decision. Having clear goals and realistic plans help in getting profits.
These are the list of some cons of implementing enterprise resource planning in a firm.

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Answer 2
Cloud computing is having access to various resources such as servers, applications,
development tools, data storage and many more. These resources are made available to the
firm and to its clients.
Cloud computing has various benefits which are as follows:

Resources
Pooling
Reduced
Scalability Setup Time

Elasticity Heterogeneity
Cloud
Measured
Computing
Ubiquitous
use Access

Usage based Service

pricing Levels
Managed
services
 • Scalability: When there is an increase in the client’s number of a firm, the firm
purchases more volume as every cloud has specific capacity of number of users who
can access the cloud system. When a firm uses cloud computing system they do not
have to acquire, install, and configure any additional IT resources as a result they can
quickly perform their job and are free from any delays.
• Elasticity: A firm needs to be elastic which is to expand or contact according to the
needs and demand of their product and they have the freedom to do so in cloud
computing system where they can expand there system according to the requirements.
• Measured Use: Through cloud computing service it is easy to measure accurately and
will also have a detailed reports which will specify the usage of each and every
resource which helps the firm to keep a track of all their resources.
• Usage based pricing: It is beneficial for a firm to invest in cloud computing service as
there are various pricing options for each and every requirement like they have
different pricing for number of resources, number of users, amount of storage needed
and many more.
• Managed Services: Through cloud-based system, transparency can be maintained
easily as a firm can manage their resources easily, they can even update their system
without being a trouble for the client and by keeping them in loop as they can access
it at any point.
• Service Levels: Cloud service gives us the facility to modify the services as required.
If a firm required good quality service, cloud service will allow them to modify it at
higher price and if they required moderate service, cloud computing service would
allow them to update it to that at a slightly lower price.
• Ubiquitous Access: Cloud computing is advantageous as it allows the clients to access
it anytime and anywhere. Cloud service will allow the clients in a different geographic
location to access the material at ease.
• Heterogeneity: These systems are very difficult to manage as they various
components and require upgradation from time to time. Through cloud computing,
this problem is resolved since it is virtual it can be viewed and manage conveniently.
• Reduced setup time: In cloud computing service there is no need to purchase
hardware as all the work is done over internet and the only thing which is necessary
for cloud computing system is having a good network system.
• Resource Pooling: In cloud computing, sharing of resources is one of their main
features. It is very beneficial as same resources can be used by two or more clients
which is not only cost beneficial but helps in saving time too.
These are few advantages of cloud computing.
It will be beneficial to provide doctors with mobile devices as it will be quick for the doctors
to know if there is an urgent requirement of medical treatment for any patient without any
delay. They will also be able to monitor patients report at ease without wasting time and even
patients and their family members won’t be chasing doctors to have a report of their patient,
they can simply check it on through cloud service.

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Answer 3a
Smart City refers to the ICT infrastructure investment done by the city on the geographic
location which in turn improves not only business but the quality of living of its citizens.
Some key elements of Smart city are as follows:
• Sensing & Measuring: It is very important to understand, observe and record
everything of the city environment. Usually, the sensing is done with the help of ICT
that records and presents detail data about the same.
• Smart Transportation: Now a days traffic has increased, and the only reason is that
due to increase in population, people do need to travel across for work and other
purposes. Smart transportation can be brought to use by installing cameras on the
roads that will monitor the traffic and the same information will be given to the traffic
police who can then change the route so that there are no ques and there is free flow
of traffic.
• Smart Environment: It is essential to find ways in order to preserve the scarce
resources of the environment and it is essential to find ways to preserve water, air, and
land for our future generation. Some ways of preserving our resources are as follows:
➢ Water Conservation: Firstly, it is essential to monitor the amount of water that
is available, and it is done by measuring the water in our water bodies and by
installing pressure gauges or by monitoring through satellites. Cities are
encouraged to preserve and save water and not waste it.
➢ Pollution Control: Sensors are implemented to check the pollution and to try
and keep it in control. Sensors are installed in warehouse, factories and in
water to check the pollution growth and taking serious actions to stop the
pollution from growing.
➢ Energy Management: It is essential to conserve energy like fuels, power
supply and many more for our future generation and not replenish it. This is
the reason why checks are made to stop over consumption of the energy and
try and preserve it for our future generation.
• Smart Building: It is very important to construct the building which is environment
friendly as building consumes a lot of energy such as air conditioning, heating,
ventilation and many more and so it is important that the architect construct such as a
building which is good for our environment and does not over utilize our resources. In
smart city’s building, sensors are installed which keep a check on the power used and
sensors are installed in parking lots as well which specify how many cars are there
and how many free spots are available and where.
• Smart Living: ICT has helped in improving the standard of living and quality of living
of its citizen. In smart city, ICT is used to rate the restaurants, check maps, feedback
about a product which can be seen by everyone throughout the world, this has helped
people to see before planning which they might have regretted later.
• Smart Governance: Smart governance can be done by shifting to e-governance where
everything is available to the citizens of the country. Citizens can monitor and
understand various work of the government. This in turn reduce the tension and
miscommunication between the citizens and the government.
These are some of the key elements of smart city.

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Answer 3b
Importance of Smart City
Smart city is very important in today’s world, they have the following importance:
• More effective, data driven decision making: Through smart city, citizens take
effective decisions are researching as everything is available on the click of the
screen.
• Enhanced citizen and government engagement: By having e-government portal,
citizens are fully aware of all the decisions taken by the government, and it reduced
misunderstandings.
• Safer communities: The smart city community is very safe as everything is ICT
related and people can constantly monitor or if any crime takes place culprit can be
caught quickly.
• Reduced environment footprint: The main purpose of the smart city is to go digital
which helps in reducing the footprints and preserving our scarce resources.
• Improved transportation: In smart city, transportation facility is improved as people
can call the cab service or check the reliability of the driver by a click on their screen.
• Increased digital equity: Providing citizens with high-speed internet and various other
digital resources helps in making lives of citizens easy.
• New economic development opportunities: In smart city, people constantly do detail
research before investing which in turn results in grabbing the new economic
opportunities coming in the way of the people.
• Efficient public utilities: The public utilities are of good standards as citizens can
easily find the material from which is made.
• Improved infrastructure: The buildings and other infrastructures are improved and are
in accordance with the smart city.
• Increased workforce engagement: In smart city, citizens have a positive work
environment as the burden of manual task are removed and everything is shifted
digital.
These are some of the importance of smart city.

Challenges in maintaining Smart City

Smart city has various challenges which are as follows:
• Cost: Implementation of hardware and software are very expensive in a smart city.
They must ensure that the investment is beneficial and is long term.
 • Privacy: Since everything is available by the click on the screen, privacy becomes the
main concern as people can constantly monitor everything.
• Surveillance: the data that is collected within the organization is used for monitoring
its employees by the managers but again the privacy of the employees is at stake.
• Data Infrastructure: As large amount of data is collected; it becomes an issue for
managing this large amount of data.

These are some of the challenges that are faced in the smart city.

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