Strategic Information System: An Essay On Designing A Conceptual Model For Natural Gas Supply.

Brief overview of Citizen’s Gas Company’s issues

Write an essay on Strategic Information System.

An organization undertakes a decision for the betterment of the business approach for attaining maximum productivity as well as profitability. Kresic (2013) depicted that better decision-making ability of the organization ensures the better managerial performance and a systematic procedure for accomplishing the business. Depending on the effectiveness of the decision-making, the conceptual model must have to be developed. Sumaedi et al. (2014) illustrate that these theoretical models describe the exact outline of prerequisites that the organization requires. Moreover, it also formulates an ideal system of the documentation along with a logical data and business goals, proceeding on which the organization can be able to resolve their adverse situation.

In this assignment, a natural gas company is selected that is Citizen’s Gas Company (CGC) that delivers the facility of natural gas services to 200,000 customers in various classes like residential class, commercial class and industrials class. The concerned organization has faced problem in controlling the supply of the natural gas to their end-consumers. Thus, a conceptual model will be designed for an information system that helps the organization to analyze their natural gas supply and the demands of the customers. This assignment also comprises of the criteria for specifying the structure and features of CGC’s new system along with the incorporated data to the CGC’s new system that also explains the importance of each data that is needed for the planning procedure for the concerned organization.

Citizen’s Gas Company offers natural gas services to the end-users that are used for numerous purposes. The concerned organization purchases natural gas form other ten pipeline companies for a fixed interval of time like for 5-15 years. The supply of the natural gas is controlled based on the customer’s demand and is stored in a storage field when the supply exceeds the demand and is withdrawn from the storage area when the demand exceeds supply. However, in recent times, the organization faces adversity in the supply as they take an initiative for limiting the natural gas supply for their industrial customers except for the heating quantities. The difficulty encountered by the former problem is the over-storage of the natural gas that was difficult to maintain the supply of the natural gas. Thus, CGC takes the initiative to formulate new system so that the supply can be improved so that no problem will occur.

In the context of the formulating new conceptual design of an information system, the required standards are the primary input, which resembles the actual reason for which the plan must have to be developed. Relying on the same factors the final output will be obtained. These inputs provide the organization an idea of what are the crucial elements for which the new plan have to be developed. Firstly, the data that is to be considered is the contractual period to which the Citizen's Gas Company (CGC) signed with 10 Pipelines Company. The time limit of the contract is crucial to the concerned organization will receive the natural gas from the pipelines companies for that particular period and their principal aim is to utilize the natural gas for fulfilling the requirement of the demand of their end-users. Thus, Guigues et al. (2014) state that the first data that the new system has to incorporate is the validity of the contractual time to analyze whether the supply of the natural gas will be provided to CGC or not. Relying on this validity the later functionalities will be performed which is described below. Thus, Shaffer (2013) depict that a clause can be outlined in the system which if shows the positive result will proceed further otherwise asks for renewing the contract for the supply of the natural gas.

Criteria in specifying the structure and feature of CGC’s new system

Huang et al. (2012) portrays that the data that is incorporate in the new system is the input and is uses for manipulating further operational functionalities within the process. Inputs are those variables depending in which a system’s working objectives can be determined. In this assignment, an information system is to be formulated for an effective natural gas distribution plan for a month.  These input data are customer's demand, the capacity of the pipeline, amount of the natural gas in the reservoir and the demand of the client according to the season (Uster and Dilaveroglu 2014). These data have some particular type that is to be inputted into the new information system.

Customer’s demand: The data customer's demand will be in the text format and can be selected from a dropdown box design in the new regime so that depending on which the appropriate option can be chosen for the natural gas supply (Soldo 2012). The organization Citizen’s Gas Company supplies their natural gas to three types of customers – residential, commercial and industrial. Moore et al. (2014) mention that their demand varies according to their uses; therefore, three more variable for the input of the amount of natural gas consumption must have to consider the customer option so that the system can identify how much natural gas should have to be provided. All these former variables are of text type while the amount of consumes natural gas will be in numerical format. Witter et al. (2013) depict that it is also important to put an option for the number of the customers in this list, which should be a numerical data that proves to be beneficial for the organization as they can quickly determine how many customers they have to supply the natural gas.

The capacity of the pipeline: This data will be entered as numerical format and is inputted for attaining the exact amount relying on which the natural gas amount will be pass in the tank (Glaubitz et al. 2014). This data has to be accurate as an extra passage of natural gas will lead to an explosion if not maintained properly and less passing of natural gas will lead to the situation where Citizen’s Gas Company cannot fulfil the use’s demand. Bai and Bai (2014) mention that aanother data that can be incorporated is an automatic generated message and diminishes the flow of the natural gas when the natural gas supply exceeds a certain level in the circulation of the natural gas. This will help the organization to supply the natural gas to its consumer safety.

Incorporated data into CGC's new regime for planning capability

Amount of the natural gas in the reservoir: This data will also take a numerical variable and is given for evaluating the amount of natural gas left in the reservoir. Yu and Sepehrnoori (2013) portray that in addition to that, an alarm can be set which will only shows signal if the natural gas tank reaches to a level where the concerned organization can get the message that they have to fill the natural gas reservoir for maintaining an uninterrupted supply of natural gas to their customers. Customer’s demand according to the season: In the given case study, it is mentioned that the demand of the customers changes according to the weather and business approach. In the summer season the household people for space heating and water heating purpose in order to save from winter. Moreover, in the commercial, it is partial dependent on the weather. Sarbu and Sebarchievici (2014) illustrate that these are the commercial buildings, where people work uses natural gas for the purpose of the space heating in the winter, lightings facilities, refrigeration, cooling in summer season and most importantly to support the computer system and other equipment with the help of the electricity. These electricity are formulated by the source of the natural gas provide by the CGC.

Furthermore, Seck et al. (2013) mention that in the context of industrial purpose the usage of natural gas are different and hence it is important to provide enough option so that the company can determine own must natural gas has to be supplied to which industry. These industries use the natural gas mostly in the food industries. These industries used natural gas for the cooking purpose all over the year, irrespective of the weather. They need natural gas for space cooling and eating purpose. Furthermore, Hauser (2016) states that taken as an example, in the waste management industries huge amount of natural gas are used in the waste treatment and incineration, glass melting, metal preheating and other processing procedures. On the other hand, more amount of natural gas is required by the direct contract water heaters, infrared heating units and the industrial combined heat and power. Thus, data must have to be given where it is mentioned that for which purpose the natural gas is being supplied. These data can be selected again form a drop down box and with each selected data a volume of the natural gas is being fixed (Hauser 2016). The dropdown list will be in textual format while the natural gas amount with each selected option will be in numerical format.

Demand of the client according to the season: Considering all the above factors and listed them in the new information system will make the system more efficient of supply the natural gas in sufficient amount the supply of the natural gas will be considered. Carroll (2014) states that options must have to be incorporated based on season like residential customer uses natural gas more in the winter compared to summer. However, commercial building uses same amount of natural gas throughout the ears as they uses natural gas for cooling purpose in summer and heating purpose in winters. Thus, drop down list of season must have to be there which is in textual format. Furthermore, Lei et al. (2015) illustrates that another data that can be incorporated is the sum-up of all the data that is taken into consideration for evaluating the total amount of natural gas consumed by CGC. This checking can be done weekly or monthly basic. Thus, CGC can evaluate in which season the natural gas is consumed higher and they can reserve gas more for these high demanding seasons.

The first data that is considered in the new system is the validity of the contract that is signed by CGC with the ten pipelines companies. The importance of this data is that the new information system will anise whether the consumer gets the supply of the natural gas or not. The system will proceed for further programed activities if the timing of the contract will be valid otherwise a new contract will have to be singed.

In the input section, the first data that is taken under the input section is the User’s demand. As mentioned in the case study, there are three types of consumers - residential consumers, commercial consumers and industrial consumers. Wu et al. (2014) depict that the usage requirement of the user varies depending on their consuming amount of the natural gas. The use of these data is crucial as it provides exact information to the organization how much natural gas is to be offered to which customers. Civan (2015) demonstrate that it is evident from the incorporated data that the residential customer consumes less natural gas on the commercial and industrial users. Commercial building also uses natural gas for the same purpose as the residential users do but in a higher amount and the industries uses the natural gas to accomplish their business procedures. 

The numerical data for inputting the capacity of the pipe is important as it will tell the system how much natural gas is to be passed form the pipe and the about the maximum capabilities of the pipeline. Ahmadi et al. (2014) mention that this information is crucial as this will handle the flow of the natural gas and help the organization to scrutinize whether the natural gas is overflowing or not from the natural gas tank in a programmatic way. Pan and Connell (2012) convey that the next data that is an alert message is necessary to handle any adverse situation and avoid explosion with an excess supply of natural gas. In this way, the organization can ensure that the system is working efficiently and is handles with proper care.

Moreover, for an effective programming for a new information system, the knowledge regarding the natural gas volume in the tank reservoir is important as it enables the organization to know about the time of refilling the tank for the supply of the natural gas (Harriss 2015). The message alerts the concerned institute and act as an indicator helping the organization for not running out of the natural gas. Proceeding in this way, the users will never complain about getting a low supply of the gas and the entire three targeted sectors will effectively get the gas for accomplishing their work. 

The demand for the natural gas according to the season is a crucial factor to give value. As mentioned earlier, in this assignment, three different types of consumers are being considered. The residential consumer uses the natural gas less compared to commercial and the industrial consumers. Belkin et al. (2013) illustrate that the importance of the selection of the type of the consumer will tell the organization to maximum to what limit the natural gas will be supplied. As every consumer have a different level of natural gas usage, the system will highlight the maximum natural gas input capacity, the type of the user and their usage per day. Exampling a circumstance, where CGC evaluates the total consumed natural gas by residential users. Arora (2014) stated that this way, the organization can analyze the reaming natural gas for the commercial and the industrial users. The industrial usage of natural gas in much higher than the commercial and hence it the organization can effectively decide how much natural gas is to be distributed among the remaining users so as to utilize all the natural gas taken by ten pipelines in contractual format from another natural gas supplier. Proceeding in this way, Scholes et al. (2012) depict that the concerned group can evaluate how much gas is used for the contractual years and hence can sign a contract based on that.

Conclusion

It is concluded form the entire case study that the Citizen's Gas Company is an organization, which supplies natural gas to their end-users for their daily house hold purpose. They have signed a contract with another company for taking natural gas form the, to provide to their three different kind of users – residential, commercial and industrial. These users have different level and amount of usage of the natural gas according to which a new information system has to be designed. The new system must consider the crucial four factors that are the demand of the customer, the capacity of the pipeline, .level of the natural gas remaining in the gas reservoir and the customer demand according to the season. The primary reason for selecting so many criteria is to build a system that makes the organization to supply sufficient natural gas to their users without being an oversupply or undersupply of natural gas. Firstly, the system considered the type of consumer and then the most important factors will be considered in the new information system that is the capacity of the pipeline used to supply the natural gas to residents, commercial buildings and industrial factories and the remaining level of natural gas in the gas reservoir. In both the patterns, an alert message will be automatically generated by the system when the pipeline exceeds its limits for gas supply and the tank reservoir has an insufficient amount of gas. In these circumstances the organization can take measurable steps for controlling the natural gas supply and is utilized in sufficient amount.

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