MANAGEMENT INFORMATION

SYSTEM OF

Submitted To

Dr. Sanjay Medhavi

(Department of Business Administration)
Lucknow University
Submitted by

MBA II Semester
Roll No.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Sanjay Medhavi for giving
me the opportunity to undergo this assignment. I further thank
him for lending me a helping hand in solving my problems related
to the assignment. This project would not have been possible
without his valuable time, constant support and inspiration. I also
thank University of Lucknow for providing me an opportunity to
undertake a theory basis assignment at this critical stage of my
life, while pursuing MBA, which helped me to understand the topic
that was un touched before, deeply. Any suggestions for
improvement are always welcome.

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

Definition: Management Information Systems (MIS) is the term
given to the discipline focused on the integration of computer
systems with the aims and objectives on an organization.
The development and management of information technology
tools assists executives and the general workforce in performing
any tasks related to the processing of information. MIS and
business systems are especially useful in the collation of business
data and the production of reports to be used as tools for decision
making.

Applications of MIS

With computers being as ubiquitous as they are today, there's

hardly any large business that does not rely extensively on their
IT systems.
However, there are several specific fields in which MIS has
become invaluable.

Strategy Support
While computers cannot create business strategies by themselves
they can assist management in understanding the effects of their
strategies, and help enable effective decision-making.
MIS systems can be used to transform data into information
useful for decision making. Computers can provide financial
statements and performance reports to assist in the planning,
monitoring and implementation of strategy.
MIS systems provide a valuable function in that they can collate
into coherent reports unmanageable volumes of data that would
otherwise be broadly useless to decision makers. By studying
these reports decision-makers can identify patterns and trends
that would have remained unseen if the raw data were consulted
manually.
MIS systems can also use these raw data to run simulations
hypothetical scenarios that answer a range of what if questions
regarding alterations in strategy. For instance, MIS systems can
provide predictions about the effect on sales that an alteration in
price would have on a product. These Decision Support Systems
(DSS) enable more informed decision making within an enterprise
than would be possible without MIS systems.

Data Processing

Not only do MIS systems allow for the collation of vast amounts of
business data, but they also provide a valuable time saving
benefit to the workforce. Where in the past business information
had to be manually processed for filing and analysis it can now be
entered quickly and easily onto a computer by a data processor,
allowing for faster decision making and quicker reflexes for the
enterprise as a whole.
Management by Objectives
While MIS systems are extremely useful in generating statistical
reports and data analysis they can also be of use as a
Management by Objectives (MBO) tool.
MBO is a management process by which managers and
subordinates agree upon a series of objectives for the subordinate
to attempt to achieve within a set time frame. Objectives are set
using the SMART ratio: that is, objectives should be Specific,
Measurable, Agreed, Realistic and Time-Specific.
The aim of these objectives is to provide a set of key performance

indicators by which an enterprise can judge the performance of

an employee or project. The success of any MBO objective
depends upon the continuous tracking of progress.
In tracking this performance it can be extremely useful to make
use of an MIS system. Since all SMART objectives are by definition
measurable they can be tracked through the generation of
management reports to be analysed by decision-makers.
Benefits of MIS
The field of MIS can deliver a great many benefits to enterprises
in every industry. Expert organizations such as the Institute of MIS
along with peer reviewed journals such as MIS Quarterly continue
to find and report new ways to use MIS to achieve business
objectives.

Core Competencies
Every market leading enterprise will have at least one core
competency that is, a function they perform better than their
competition. By building an exceptional management information
system into the enterprise it is possible to push out ahead of the
competition. MIS systems provide the tools necessary to gain a
better understanding of the market as well as a better
understanding of the enterprise itself.

Enhance Supply Chain Management

Improved reporting of business processes leads inevitably to a
more streamlined production process. With better information on
the production process comes the ability to improve the
management of the supply chain, including everything from the
sourcing of materials to the manufacturing and distribution of the
finished product.

ERP OF DELL
Dell Computers Vital PLM Processes
Dell

has

achieved

dramatic

success

streamlining

its

product data management activities to product life cycle

management. Its ability to keep the project focused on
core business processes has yielded short time to value.

In 2000, Dell Computer faced these trade-offs as part of its

constant efforts to improve its supply chain processes. In this
case, it improved its product data management (PDM)
capabilities, most notably its engineering change management
(ECM) processes, internally and across the supply chain. In
addition to streamlining the engineering workflow, this IT effort
was key to building a foundation that can enable more-efficient
product life cycle management (PLM). The goal of PLM is to
manage the stages of a product's life to improve business

performance. PLM depends on PDM for timely and accurate

information about the status of a product definition.
Problem: Dell determined that it needed to reduce costs
associated with managing product data and improve its
engineering change workflow internally and across the supply
chain as part of its ongoing efforts to improve business
performance. The established infrastructure and processes were
supported by internally developed applications to define products
and manage bills of material (BOMs), manage related
documentation and support ECM. As the enterprise continued to
grow, it was becoming harder to monitor and control product
development and production startup. Dell sought to address these
issues before they became widespread.
Objective: As a cornerstone of Dell's strategy, engineering
management recognized the importance of adopting standard
software and processes for the workflow from design through
manufacturing implementation. The scope of the effort required
the inclusion of suppliers and manufacturing sites; otherwise, Dell
would face increasing challenges with the timeliness and
accuracy of product data. These problems could, in turn, create
product quality problems, as well as unacceptable levels of scrap,
rework and material shortages, resulting in inefficiencies in a
highly competitive market. By improving these processes, Dell
hoped to discover opportunities to further reduce material costs.

For a company that ships more than 4 million PCs per quarter,
small material savings per PC can improve the bottom line
significantly. Key objectives included:
Enabling consistent engineering change workflow globally
across Dell and suppliers
Improving data integrity, as well as the timeliness and accuracy
of product data
Reducing engineering change cycle times
Increasing the automatic reuse of product data across multiple
applications, while eliminating the need for data reentry.
Reducing the workload required for product configuration
management
Detecting product data errors before they reach manufacturing
Integrating with established applications, such as Dell's sales
configuration tool for servers and storage devices in the
United States
Reducing system downtime
Improving user acceptance and use of enterprise-standard
software
Dell was concerned about the time and cost for such an effort.
Based on its own knowledge and anecdotal evidence, the
company was aware that such large-scale initiatives typically
require more than a year to accomplish. On occasion, they may
take many years, at great expense, and with the risk of
unsatisfactory results. In the fast-paced PC industry, failure could
have hurt the companys ability to compete.

Approach: Dell decided to replace its internally developed

infrastructure for PDM with commercial, Web-based software that
would support product definition, configuration management, and
ECM across the enterprise and the supply chain. During 2000, the
stewards of product data, Dells Product Group
Configuration Management (PGCM) team, drove this effort in
conjunction with the engineering services project team. Meetings
with senior executives reaffirmed the need for the project,
reinforced corporate commitment, and confirmed the goals, scope
and expected results from this initiative. Enterprise wide
awareness of this support from senior executives encouraged
cooperation from all affected groups. Central to this strategy was
Dell's decision to focus on the IT capabilities that would be useful
to improving its infrastructure. It focused on secure document and
file management, BOM creation, product configuration
management, ECM, and the Web based ability to coordinate these
activities across Dell's global operations and with suppliers.
Although Dell recognized that supporting multiple types of
workflow could be valuable, it decided to streamline workflow
options during the initial deployment of software. After exploring
options with major systems integrators (SIs) and suppliers of PDM
applications, Dell decided to partner with Agile Software and to
support the effort with an internal team dedicated to the
deployment. Dell adopted this approach because:
Agile addressed the major focus points of this initiative

 During the evaluation process, Agile instilled the greatest

confidence that Dell could work with it to deploy in the Dell
environment
Given their knowledge of engineering processes and software,
an internal deployment team from Dell would deliver a moreeconomical and timely solution than those proposed by Sis Figure
1 depicts the upgraded infrastructure. At the core, the ehub and
the Internet file server provide the backbone for archiving and
sharing electronic files securely across the Internet. The product
data validator and the Agile integration server provide the
interface between Agile and Dells enterprise resource planning
(ERP) environments worldwide, as well as to its sales configurator
for complex servers and storage devices in the United States. By
integrating Agile with its sales configuration validation tool, Dell
enabled its U.S.-based sales department to automatically validate
server and storage device configurations based on engineering
technical attribute data housed in the Agile tool. Dell executed the
bulk of the deployment in two phases. The first enabled Agile as
the system of record for 2,500 internal users and 37 of Dell's top
50 suppliers. More than 250,000 part numbers and 20,000
documents were converted from the legacy database into Agile's
software environment. This phase lasted seven months (from
March 2000 through October 2000) and cost between 200 percent
and 250 percent of the software's purchase price. Nonsoftware
costs comprised Agile's consulting services, the time of internal
team members, travel and ancillary software support for the Web-

based environment, including extranet support. On 1 October

2000, Dell went live on Agile as the product change system of
record to manage all product platforms. During the second phase
of the deployment (from October 2000 to June 2001), Dell added
800 users and 63 suppliers to the system. It improved interfaces
with ERP systems and developed the data validator with Agile's
Software Development Kit. The data validator checks product data
accuracy, compliance with local manufacturing conditions and the
compatibility of translated data with local ERP data formats.
Further steps in this effort will involve refinement of the workflow
internally and with suppliers.
Results: The initiative reduced the product development cost
structure by improving the timeliness and accuracy of product
data and ECM processes across Dell and its supplier network. Dell
achieved most of these benefits during late product design stage
(just before manufacturing begins). This is the point in the product
life cycle with the greatest volume of engineering change to
manage internally it is the point in time at which suppliers have
the greatest risk of error. Dell reduced the resources necessary to
process engineering changes by more than 30 percent. The
average time to process an engineering change dropped by 50
percent. Thirty percent fewer people are needed for configuration
management globally, since employees are able to process four
times as many engineering changes as they had done previously.
This enabled personnel to be redeployed to other critical tasks

throughout the product's life cycle. Improvements in the accuracy

and timeliness of data reduced unnecessary scrap and rework. On
average, Dell processes more than 4,000 changes monthly on
more than 20,000 parts.
The data validator traps more than 8,500 errors each month. This
has substantially reduced the amount of personnel required to
intervene on the translation of product data to ERP systems.
Critical Success Factors/Lessons Learned: An enterprisewide
IT project does not have to be broad to deliver value. Such an
initiative should focus on the business processes with the greatest
impact. Dell achieved a rapid time to value seen across the
enterprise because it focused the effort on a vital business
process.
Software tools with the greatest breadth of off-the-shelf
functionality do not necessarily offer the best solution for the
enterprise. Dell compared Agile's Product Collaboration module to
applications with greater scope and selected Agile because it was
the best fit for the business processes to be addressed. The user
and vendor must coordinate the quality assurance effort. More
regression testing and greater quality assurance effort would
have saved additional time and money. Standard, but imperfect,
workflow is more-efficient than attempting to implement ideal,
but complex, workflow. Agile supported much of what Dell wanted
in workflow as part of its packaged software; however, it was not

ideal across the enterprise. This standard, but imperfect, workflow

support significantly contributed to the success of this effort.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Dell Computer Corporation enjoys a reputation for outstanding
customer service. This expertise has helped the company become
one of the fastest growing computer manufacturers in the world.
But customers in the rapidly evolving information age expect
even more. To meet its customers demands for faster, betterinformed, and more responsive service, Dell has developed a host
of Microsoft
Exchange Serverbased knowledge management solutions that
has helped the company increase productivity and cut costs while
improving customer service.
The concept of direct customer contact has made Dell Computer
Corporation one of the most successful companies of the 1990s.
But to carry their success into the next millennium, Dell
executives realized they would need to make sure that when
customers come into contact with Dell, they receive quick,
accurate, knowledgeable service.
Dell has a two-part sales force, an internal sales-support team
and a fleet of field sales representatives. Historically, the groups
were challenged to keep their information about customers in
synch and up-to-date, often resulting in needless duplication of
efforts and missed sales opportunities.

Dell also needed a way to respond to customers whether they

contacted the company by letter, fax, phone call, or e-mail.
Complicating that communication was the fact that the people
who needed to respond to customer issues were dispersed among
the companys more than 33,000 employees in 33 different
countries.
As Dell and its customer base began to experience explosive
growth, it became increasingly difficult for Dell employees to
provide high-quality service using non-automated processes,
says Arnie Panella, Dell senior manager for global messaging
infrastructure.We needed to create an infrastructure to support
development of workflow-based applications that would enable us
to efficiently organize, share, and disseminate information
throughout Dell, so we could better serve our customers.
Uniting a Disparate Sales Force
By May 1998, Dell had standardized on Microsoft Exchange
Server and the Microsoft Outlook messaging and collaboration
client, which the company chose not only for their reliability and
scalability, but also as a knowledge-management platform.
Exchange gives us more than a messaging system, says
Panella. It gives us a stable, scalable platform we can also use
for collaboration, data storage, application development, and
knowledge management. To help better connect its internal sales
support team and its field sales representatives, Dell created a
universal contact-management system that sales reps can update
and synchronize easily, whether they were accessing the system

from an internal desktop computer or an offline laptop. Dell found

the solution simple to implement, thanks to Exchange Public
Folders on the server side, and Outlook Contacts on the desktop.
Now, with the universal contact repository in place, sales,
management, marketing, and executive staff can access any
customers full history, including the most recent activity at a
customer site, order status, and relationship or competitive
details, all from their standard Outlook Contacts interface. The
contact information is stored in Exchange Public Folders, so it is
automatically synchronized every time an employee logs on to his
or her e-mail account. This system has standardized the customer
information corporate wide and united the inside and outside
sales forces into a single team because of the timely information
sharing. Its also helped with sales productivity because of the
ability in Outlook to plan meetings, assign tasks and manage
follow up.
Responding to Customers Promptly and Accurately
Dell has also used Exchange to create a workgroup documentmanagement system called Customer Recovery. With these
system customer service representatives, who handle incoming
customer issues and orders, enter inquiries into a custom Outlook
form. The Keyfile Keyflow automated workflow application then
automatically routes the form to the appropriate person within
Dell. Dell managers can quickly check to see if a customer service
representative has officially closed the inquiry or not, and they
can track who is resolving issues and how theyre being resolved.

Customer Recovery makes sure that weve addressed whatever

issues the customer has raised in a timely and efficient manner,
Panella says. With this knowledge management solution, we
make sure that the correct people see the complaint, resolve it,
and close the loop with the customer, and that gives our
customers a better experience with Dell. Dells order-fulfillment
and tracking process has also improved. The company receives
many orders by fax, and customer service representatives used to
write down additional information or customer questions on the
actual hard fax copy. These records were very difficult to track,
manage, and follow up on. In fact, it could take weeks for Dell
employees to find the correct fax order and respond to a
customer inquiry. Dell IT staff made a number of changes that
help make these fax orders more manageable. First, they installed
the Omtool Fax Sr. fax server to receive all incoming faxes and
send them directly to employees desktops via Exchange Public
Folders. Then, they designed a knowledge management solution
that makes it easy for employees to find the order information
they need. Now, when a fax order arrives at Dell, an employee
enters all the relevant information into a custom Outlook form,
and the fax and form are sent to a Microsoft SQL Server-based
database. Any Dell employee can then find the order almost
instantly and answer questions or update information.
Business-Critical Results
According to Panella, the document-management system is
helping Dell in a few very important areas. The system has cut

the material costs of printing faxes and has saved the company
for each page not printed. In addition, the time it takes to service
requests has been reduced dramatically from a number of days to
the number of minutes it takes to service online image retrieval.
The document management system has dramatically improved
Dells responsiveness to order inquiries. Because accounts
receivable can also find payment information almost immediately,
it has helped Dell to come up with the correct document quickly.
Because Dell employees can invoice customers more quickly and
follow up on payment status easily, Panella considers this a
business-critical solution. In addition to increasing sales
productivity, the shared-contact management system has also
given the Dell sales force a competitive advantage. If a Dell
employee learns that a competitor is courting a Dell customer, he
or she can target and quickly contact the appropriate people at
the customer site. Then the representative can update the
contact information immediately, so other Dell employees know
about the situation and the action taken. Dell has many plans to
refine and expand its use of knowledge management solutions.
For example, its IT staff is developing reporting tools that will help
managers record, track, and analyze the success of systems such
as Customer Recovery. In addition, the company is in the process
of developing an automated approval system that will reduce the
time it takes to fulfill employee requests, whether for new
equipment or a change in benefits. Employees will enter their
requests in a custom Outlook form that will then automatically be

routed to the correct managers for approval. And the efforts wont
stop there. Dell executives have embraced knowledge
management as an integral component of running an efficient
business. Says Panella, Very soon after migration, weve gone
from using Exchange just as our messaging system, to using it for
business-critical knowledge management applications.
DELL UPS SOFTWARE
REMOTE MONITORING AND CONTROL OF UPS PRODUCTS

Dell UPS Management Software supports Uninterruptible Power

Supply (UPS) products connected to an individual computer as
well as UPS models connected to a network using the Network
Management Card (NMC). The Dell UPS Management Software
allows you to monitor and manage several UPS products through
one intuitive graphical user interface. In addition to monitoring
the UPS products the software also safeguards computer systems
from uncontrolled shutdowns due to power failure.
With the Dell UPS Management Software, you can configure UPS
products on any computer within the same LAN and monitor their
status. Using the UPS software, you can manage the power to
multiple computers on a network as well as shut systems down in
the event of a utility power failure, saving vital application data.
The Dell UPS Management software also supports different UPS
products in redundant configurations1 through the same user
interface.

DELL UPS MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE COMPONENTS

Dell UPS Management Software has three components. Of these,

the first is the Agent, which is the core component and runs in the
background as a system service. It communicates with the UPS,
logs events, notifies users of events, arranges actions according
to the users specifications, and initiates shutdown when
necessary. The Agent can be managed by the Monitor.
The Monitor is the graphical user interface application of the Dell
UPS Management Software. Communicating with the Agent, it
gathers real-time UPS information, UPS status, and server
information, and allows the user to tailor the UPS working
parameters. It can run on any computer on the LAN or on a
standalone computer. The final component, the Tray Icon, is the
management tool of the Dell UPS Management Software, and it
appears in the status area of the system task bar. It is available
only for the Microsoft Windows platform.

DELL UPS MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FEATURES

Dell UPS Management Software features include:

User-friendly GUI showing status of all locally connected and
networked Dell UPS products

 Remote control and configuration of Dell UPS products through

network
Redundant UPS configurations support even with different Dell
UPS products
Automatic closing of applications and initiation of multiple
server shutdowns in the event of power failures
Wake on LAN server action enablement after power outage
Energy-saving design: Manages timed (on/off) control of UPS
Allows customized messaging upon power events
Easy access to historical data logs and events
Automatic local and network discovery of all Dell UPS products
Self test and power on/off scheduling calendar
ADDITIONAL ADVANTAGES
The Dell UPS Software is bundled free of charge with every Dell
UPS, so you can manage multiple servers and UPS products
without buying additional software. The software also includes
information in English, German, Spanish, French, Russian,
Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Finally, you have the assurance that the Dell UPS Software is Dell
tested, approved, and supported.
CONCLUSION
Management information system involves the information
system and the organization. Dell benefits a lot from the
management information system. The system helps the company

create strategies that will help the company conquer any

problems and threats from competitors. The system also assists
the company in processing the needed information. Management
Information Systems also helps a company to create or update its
inventory control system.

Recommendations
Since the MIS of a company is a vital part of its operations and its
survival in the modern world, it must be well updated and it must
compete well with MISs competitors. The MIS of a company
should be created from high standards so that it can be of stiff
competition against its counterparts. The MIS system should help
the company to achieve its goals and assist the company in
reaching its potential.