Management Information Systems Report - Assignment Task

Learning Outcomes

Assignment Brief

As part of the formal assessment for the programme you are required to submit a Management Information Systems report. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on  preparing and submitting assignments.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of information needs within different functional areas of organisations.
2. Identify and compare information systems within different functional areas of organisations.
3. Use information systems to produce management information at middle and senior management levels of organisations.
4. Identify and examine the legal implications associated with information handling and security.
5. Identify and examine the ethical implications associated with information handling and security.

Guidance

Your assignment should include: a title page containing your student number, the module name, the submission deadline and the exact word count of your submitted document; the appendices if relevant; and a reference list in AU Harvard system(s). You should address all the elements of the assignment task listed below. Please note that tutors will use the assessment criteria set out below in assessing your work.

Assignment Task – Report (100%)

To make this assignment (and thus the module) more relevant and interesting for you, rather than give all students the same fixed (and artificial) case study, you will select your own real-world case study and then apply the concepts and techniques you have learned from this module to that case study.

Choose wisely. Make sure you select a company that you like, one that you can get information for. For the whole of this assignment, you are required to conduct your own independent research. This means, visiting online libraries, academic journals and business reports etc. Your aim is to provide a report to the board of directors, which will answer the following 5 questions.

Do not forget to cite your sources and to add a list of reference in the end of the assignment.

Question 1:

 a. Write a brief description of organization you What do they do? Where are they based? What products, services and markets are they involved with?

b. Provide their web address so that the marker can follow it up and, to add visual appeal, include a screenshot of their home page.

While their website and other online sources will give you a very good idea of what the organization actually does, you may have to use your imagination to fill in some missing bits in order to answer the remainder of the tasks in this assignment. This is not a problem – just fully document your own assumptions and fully reference any third-party sources that you have used to get additional background information.

In short, start the assignment by clearly and fully introducing your selected case study so that the marker can fully understand your subsequent work and thus ensure that you get maximum credit for all your hard work. (400 words) (10 marks)

For your chosen company:

a. List and describe the various functional business units and the internal structure of the

b. Illustrate the linkages between the different business

c. Provide an organisation chart and data flow diagrams to represent the dependence of each of the business units to each other and the direction of data flows within the organisation and provide the reasons behind this (700 words) (20 marks) (LO1)

Question 3 (LO2)

Your chosen organisation has contacted you and wants to contract you as an MIS consultant. They are having some problems with their decision making process and their orientation as a company. It is a good thing you are here! When you go in front of the company’s board, you should:

a. Explain the key concepts and differences between the three types of data (operational, tactical and strategic) and,

b. Clarify how these three levels relate to the hierarchy of business units – for your chosen company and how they can help the

It is recommended that you present this analysis as a table or matrix – for ease of comparison. Well-annotated diagrams are also a good idea. (700 words) (25 marks)

Question 4 (LO3, 4)

In the same meeting, you find it useful to advice the board on how they can use suitable technological solutions in their benefit. Define and describe the following key concepts:

a. Operational database and CRM technologies and products

b. Data warehousing, data mining and data analytics (‘big data’) options

c. Cloud-based and out-sourced data management platforms & services

d. Web-based and mobile (24 x 7) access to all these platforms

Now, once you have defined and described the concepts, select the two that you think would be most beneficial to your selected company. Justify why you chose them, and present convincing arguments to the board regarding their potential benefits. (600 words) (25 marks)

Question 5 (LO5)

Your final task is to advise the board of this case study on the professional, ethical, legal and social considerations of implementing and using MIS platforms, or indeed, of any IT system. (600 words) (20 marks)