Expand upon the role of the business information systems presented by your colleague and offer other opportunities, solutions, or implications that your colleague may not have shared.

 

In your Week 1 Discussion you described how business information systems have been applied in an organization with which you are familiar. Read through your colleagues’ posts and respond to two of your colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

• Share your insights about the business information systems identified by your colleague, and offer additional ideas about the impact they might have and challenges that could occur.
• Expand upon the role of the business information systems presented by your colleague and offer other opportunities, solutions, or implications that your colleague may not have shared.

Posts to respond to:

As a manager, it is critical for you to understand the types of business information systems available to support business operations, management, and strategy within an organization.  According to Drnevich & Croson (2013) business success directly affects the mechanisms through which information technology create and capture value to earn a profit.  Businesses have the ability to view changes in the global markets at a much faster paste using information technology than before.

At my present employment, the organization uses accounting information system, customer relationship management (CRM) and human resource management.  Accounting information system (AIS) is used for reporting to internal and external users, which presents a platform for company managers in the decision-making process (Knezevic, S., Stankovic, A., & Tepavac, R. 2012).  According to Knezevic, S., Stankovic, A., & Tepavac, R. (2012) not only the database provides a need for creation of information but to a significant extent simplification and relief in the functioning of business systems, is crucial importance for successful business operations of a company.  QuickBooks is used for the accounting information system to manage the finances of the organization. The organization uses QuickBooks for billing and invoicing, bank reconciliation, expense tracking, check printing, direct deposit to name a few. The customer relationship management (CRM) Avaloq is the central workspace for client relationship managers and provides quick access to client data, client portfolio, and to open issues to record contacts.  Human Resource Management involves management function like planning, organizing, directing and controlling. The human resource management process consists of recruiting, selecting employees, deciding compensation and providing benefits, motivating employees and maintaining relations with employees.

Two examples of how these business information systems are affecting the organization goal of planning systems to combine as many functions and capabilities into one integrated system.  Examples of client relationship management based upon individuals receiving inaccurate data from a manager. A salesperson, who spend time increasing the organization bottom-line, will be equally upset, by running the risk of losing credibility by customers who bought into the products of the bank. Second example: human resource management is affected by new technologies system. New technology runs the risk of a job that used to be two to four people can be size down to one person.

The importance of business information systems and why managers need to understand how systems can be used to the organization’s advantage through communication systems, operations management, decision making and, record-keeping.  Information systems can be used by managers more efficiently by sharing documents with employees via shared folders.  Employees can collaborate in a systematic way.

Organizations can operate more efficiently with information systems offering more complete and recent information.  Organizations can make better decisions through the information systems with information stored to shape the results of the organization decisions.  Record-Keeping will help the organization to record all operational activities for audit and financial purposes to assist also in finding discrepancies  and finding solutions to any problem.

Technology is revolutionizing the way we do business.

References

Drnevich, P. L., & Croson, D. C. (2013). Information technology and business-level strategy: toward an integrated theoretical perspective. MIS Quarterly, 37(2). 483-509

Knezevic, S., Stankovic, A., & Tepavac, R. (2012). Accounting information system as a platform for business and financial decision-making in the company. Management, 65, 63-69

Second Post:

I am new to management and as the Director of Nursing I have found the importance of different types of business information systems available to me.  Learning these systems and utilizing them to their full potential will only make me a stronger leader to the organization.  Of the six mentioned in our discussion I have found customer relationship management (CRM) and decision support system (DSS) as the two most used information systems used in my organization.  Starting out I was told by the administrator the importance of the business relationships I hold in all I come in contact with.

Customer Relationship Management

In order to stay afloat we must have residents that want to use our nursing home for their loved ones needs whether short or long term.  Managing and nurturing the residents and their loved ones as well as the relationship with other businesses will attract new residents and nurture the current relationships we already have.  This leads to increase in profits to maintain a successful organization. Image is very important as well as the experience once perceives working with our organization.  If they have a good experience, they will likely spread that positive out in the community leading to more customers.  If one has a bad experience, then that may keep others in the community from using our services which will lead to a possible closure of our organization.

Decision Support System

My organization uses the informational technology available to us through the electronic health record (EHR) to assist in obtaining data in order to improve on quality care.  For instance, falls. we can narrow it down to who, where, when, and why they fell to see any correlation between the falls.  Eliminating the root cause of this type of occurrence is done through data as well a support team that develops a solution to the problem.  We also can track infection rates within the organization through the EHR as some types of infection affect reimbursement rates.

In conclusion I have realized that there are many different types of business information systems and they all affect the operation, management and strategy to running a successful organization. As a manager I need to understand how these systems work and used to their full potentional in order to take full advantage to what’s available to the organization. Just as Rob James (2013) talks of how informational technology has saved lives our healthcare organization informational technology also has the potential to do so as well.

Reference

Books24x7. (Producer). (2013). Rob James: Saving Lives with Information Technology. [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author