Cis/205 Information Systems Paper

Information Systems Paper
Scott Clark
CIS 205
June 20, 2011
Robert Meyers

In society today it has become increasingly necessary to effectively use technologically advanced Information systems and software applications to run an organization. In our technologically advanced and dynamic society, organizations are being pushed to use and operate updated and advanced information systems and software applications to store information, process data and effectively manage day to day operations. In this paper the subject discussed will be how a CIS (computer information systems) can help an organization, what they are, and an example of a CIS and its uses in a retail environment. Referred to as a CIS (computer information system), which include computers, software, hardware, operating systems and
people, is important in managing and running an organization daily. For example, in a retail store, a CIS can manage productivity, inventory, schedules, ordering, sales, trends in sales, and products. All of these of which are extremely important in keeping a retail business running and profitable. A CIS is important to a retail store in that it can store, calculate and track all information regarding sales, customer spending habits, inventory, ordering of products, sales per department, sales versus last year, labor costs and employee productivity. All of the above-mentioned tasks can be stored and retrieved as necessary by managers and supervisors to assist them in properly staffing, handling departmental sales, stocking of departments, and running the store daily. With the amount of data and size of files that can be contained within the retail business, it would be nearly impossible to accurately sort and process these files manually. Using a good, reliable CIS, an organization can track and compile data quickly to help determine whether or not the organization is on track with its sales or headed in the right direction financially. After an organizations sales data is collected and calculated, the organization can track and assess employee productivity, inventory on hand versus sold, departmental sales goals and needs for the future. Organizations process electronic data on a daily basis worldwide. Processing of this data allows organizations to make effective and comprehensive business decisions based on this data. This data can be stored virtually anywhere and easily retrieved whenever the need arises. In my current position, retail management, my main responsibilities are sales, inventory, and ordering products, while ensuring tasks are completed and employee production is high.
Sales data in my company determines allowable labor usage, and labor cost percentage which allows us to calculate employee productivity. At one time, sales figures and data were kept track of manually and they were stored at the main office. At this time my company has updated its CIS by installing two large IBM server banks that allows these figures and data to be tracked by software on a business computer. Now this data is stored at the store level and we can access the figures and data at any time just by accessing one of our many business computers. To aid in ordering and inventory, we have also upgraded to hand held computers. These computers, called Telzons, are wireless hand held computers that allow us to check prices, inventory on hand and order products just by scanning the UPC label of an item. This also used to be done manually, since upgrading, these computers have not only saved time and money, but also have far more accurate pricing and inventory
counts. Since the upgrading of our CIS, not only has it improved employee productivity, inventory counts and pricing, but the upgraded touch screen registers at the front of the store work much more rapidly, are more accurate and can perform many more functions than they could in the past. The new CIS makes it easier for the cashiers to operate the registers, check out customers and allows the customer to pay and leave in a minimal amount of time. Because of the new system, the registers can now track, calculate and store customer and product information, which helps us with inventory ordering and determining customer satisfaction. Modern technology and the upgrade of my companies CIS has allowed the company to become almost fully automated. Data that used to be tracked and calculated manually is now in the hands of a fully automated system and can be tracked, stored, and calculated at the touch of a button. The main problem with the new CIS is that wireless connectability, Internet connectability and system freezes have become ongoing issues. Periodically we are unable to connect the telzons to the system or connect to the internet, and periodically the registers and system will freeze up, denying access to data and files necessary to do our jobs. This is something the company is working on and is gradually becoming better. The main improvements needed are to address the connectability issues, it is very hard to do our jobs when we can not access the system. I think to fix this issue they should have located the server banks in better areas of the store, as connectability, always somewhat of an issue, could be much better if the server banks were centrally located. As this is a new system, it is assumed there will be some issues that need to be taken care of and it is just a matter of time before they are fixed. A CIS within any organization, will not only save time and money, but creates more effective and efficient employees. Files and data are processed and calculated faster and data can easily be stored and retrieved depending on an organizations needs. My company’s current updated CIS has proven to be worth the effort, saving time and money while allowing more functions and features to be available to employees allowing them to work more productively. Although there are some issues that come along with a new CIS, those generally will be worked out over time. A good, reliable CIS in any organization will prove to be time and money saving along with being extremely cost-effective over time.
Information Systems Paper