preview

Managing Information System: Case Study of Dell Essay

Satisfactory Essays

KCB ID: 4748 UoW ID: 0811867059438

University of Wales
Prifysgol Cymru

MBA Managing Information Systems Lecturer: Mr. Cilliers Diedericks Student ID: 4748
Words : 3295

1

KCB ID: 4748 UoW ID: 0811867059438

“The ultimate goal of any Management Information System (MIS) is optimization” (Jackson D. Ford 1987). An integrated MIS should achieve optimization by performing the following three main functions for the organisation that it is applied into: 1. Provide information across various departments 2. Facilitate decision making at the three tiers of management 3. Serve as efficient means for managing business processes Organisations can either provide “service” or “manufactured goods” as their product or more commonly a …show more content…

A manager can effectively design and manage information systems of a company only by analysing it closely for example its common and unique features. The structure of Dell for example, classified as a divisional bureaucracy (ranks 33rd on the Fortune500 2009 list) would be of great help to a manager in understanding its information systems across and along that structure. According to Joan, (1998), Dell’s performance in the global IT has earned the company production efficiencies like flexibility and improved speed.

The IT Productivity Paradox
With a change of the full implementation of IT in a company, significant changes can be brought to the products, markets, and society as a whole (Chan, 2000). On the contrary, according to Carr (2003), IT cannot be used as a differentiating factor to outdo competitors. He claimed that IT can be purchased in the marketplace, can easily be imitated and is thus just a mere commodity based on the Internet which most companies can freely get access to. Dell has defied Chan’s claims by being highly successful through the use of IT as a differentiator to outperform its rivals. Also many well known studies by leading researchers have found that IT/IS can bring a significant positive effect to a firm’s productivity (Brynjolffson and Hitt, 1996; Guimares 1997; Dewan and Kraemer 1998). Based on all these differed views, Brynjolfsson, (1993) brought forward the “IT productivity paradox” which reveals the

Get Access