Module on Information Systems in Organizations: Real-world Case Study

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes:

After completing the module, you should be able to:

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.

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.

a) Select an industry, market sector or area of life that really interests you. It does not matter what you choose – as long as you are genuinely interested in it. It could be from any area of commercial life, the charity and voluntary sector, sport, leisure and hobbies or some aspect of government or public service. Document why you have picked a particular area – is it because you work in that sector? Is your hobby linked to that sector? Are you seeking to enter employment in that sector? Etc. Justify the selection.

b) Within your chosen area or sector, select ONE real-world organization – it could be a profit-seeking private company, a charity or voluntary group, a sporting team or a public-sector agency like some aspect of the emergency services or a local or central government department or agency. Again, explain why you have chosen it.

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

d) Provide the web address of this organization 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.

For your chosen company, list and describe the various functional business units and the internal structure of the company. You may get much of this from the company website, but supplement this with additional research as needed (fully referenced). Take care to describe not only the type of function each unit performs but also the in-going and out-going types of data. To what end is that data used within each business unit? Supply screenshots of the website as evidence.

Imagine that you have been engaged by your chosen organization as an MIS consultant. Explain to the company board the key concepts and differences between:

• Operational data

• Tactical data

• Strategic data

You should also clarify how these three levels relate to the hierarchy of business units – for your chosen company - you researched in Question 2. 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.

As a MIS consultant, the company will be looking to you for advice on suitable technological solutions to implement these ideas. By conducting suitable research (fully referenced), advise the board of your chosen company on:

• Operational database and CRM technologies and products

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

• Cloud-based and out-sourced data management platforms & services

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

For each category, describe the key concepts, applications and business benefits before looking in detail at least one specific real-world example from each category. Be sure to include a website image and the full web address of each product. Where in your chosen organization will each of these technologies be best used – and by whom and for what purpose?

Your final task as a MIS professional is to advise the board of your chosen company on professional, ethical, legal and social (PELS) considerations. Conduct appropriate research (fully referenced) and summarize the key points.