Introduction
Creation of new technologies provoked emergence of new ways of business development. The Balanced Scorecard and Business Intelligence are the most innovative ones. Features of these Management Information Systems (MIS) are that they benefit organizations by reducing risks, increasing revenue, reducing costs, and achieving a competitive advantage. Effective implementation of Management Information Systems is the key to efficient management and marketing. However, their use also has peculiarities that can lead to obstacles and limitations. One should analyze features and role of Management Information Systems to understand their impact on the organization. This essay intends to study peculiarities of implementation of Management Information Systems in ENOC, the UAE oil company, as well as their advantages and disadvantages.
ENOC is an oil company that operates in the UAE. The business nature of this organization is favourable as the United Arabic Emirates belongs to the most important oil manufacturers and this country has the biggest oil reserves in the world. The key objects of the business are gas and oil development, chemicals, shipping, aviation, information technology, liquid storage, and retail. Main operations of ENOC are terminals, retail, processing, marketing, supply, trading, and other ventures. The government of Dubai owns this organization. ENOC diversifies economies of Dubai and the UAE, being a governmental gas and oil company. ENOC is constantly looking for new ideas, ways, experimentation, and solutions for improving its services and products through implementation of Management
Information Systems (ENOC, n.d.).
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ENOC plans to increase its oil development by 70 per cent through innovations like the Business Intelligence and Balanced Scorecard. General environment of ENOC depends on global, demographic, political, economic, sociocultural, and technological issues. ENOC has such issues as spending additional costs on creating new locations for its products and on the development of the company. However, with the help of Management Information Systems, ENOC can do this more efficiently. ENOC needs to develop Management Information Systems within the organization to keep abreast of time. One should also mention that THE R&D strategy is responsible for the implementation of innovative technologies.
ENOC knows about advantages of Management Information Systems. However, the scope of their use is being investaged. First of all, implementation of new technologies demands additional investment and costs that can be harmful to the organization where all financial resources have their appointment. Secondly, ENOC conducts training among employees and it demands time. ENOC is a slow adopter of technologies; therefore, implementation of Management Information Systems is a new process that is costly in terms of time, money, and efforts.
Managers responsible for changes and innovations have revealed that new projects concerning technologies are risky and demand reduction of human resources. However, ENOC should indeed do its best to remain faithful to creative employees who will use Manasgement Information Systems with benefits for the company. The organization should apply innovative technologies to achieve economic gains and profits. ENOC knows that globalization and integration in the world market demand crucial changes and modernization; therefore, Management Information Systems can be an alternative for solving this dilemma.
It is evident that such company as ENOC should have many IT professionals and experienced users of technologies to use Management Information Systems. It means that the organization can deal with such obstacle as resistance of employees to use new tools. Another obstacle to the implementation of MIS within ENOC refers to recruitment of IT specialists and training of other employees to use this software. Strengths of the implementation of MIS are related to such functions as storage and analysis of data, as well as empowerment of employees to make better business decisions. Consequently, the scope of MIS has not been investgated in the full measure.
MIS software within ENOC is related to the competitive advantage, lowering of costs, and collection and analysis of data. MIS databases provide quick access to data and improve organizational efficiency. Feautures of Management Information Systems in ENOC are quickness, innovation, availability, access, efficiency, and proper use of information. The architecture of MIS refers to customers, innovation, development, internal processes, and financial operations. MIS hardware is based on collection, analysis, calculations, and reporting on received information. Networking of MIS relies upon relations of the organization with employees and customers. Databases include information about customers, sales, and revenues (Berisha-Namani, 2010). Users of MIS databases are employees who should be knowledgeable in IT technologies. Initially, ENOC has addressed only two questions concerning the new MIS. The first one has referred to sale of additional products to customers. MIS compares clients’ activities to geography, type, and size of the company. The second question has addressed losses of customers. ENOC uses MIS to increase customers’ number and find ways to satisfy their needs.
Functions of Management Information Systems are to make the company shift from traditional ways of decision-making to the innovative ones. Moreover, Management Information Systems can ensure performance of all management functions (planning, organizing, directing, controlling). “Information systems form an integral part of modern organisations and businesses and are designed to support management acivities, in particular, better decision making” (Berisha-Namani, 2010, p. 115). Analyzing the managerial and financial situation in ENOC, one can say that Information Management Systems serve as the driving force for this organization.
Management Information Systems are based on such process as initiation. At this stage, the organization should define the model of system relating to the Business Intelligence or Balanced Scorecard. Another stage of implementation is planning. The process of planning is aimed at defining objectives and goals. At this stage, the company should decide how these planned objectives and goals will be fulfilled and offer necessary measures. The last stage is execution. At this stage, one puts in practice planned objectives and goals. At the monitoring and controlling stage, one should check efficacy of MIS for the organization (Berisha-Namani, 2010).
Analyzing the use of MIS in ENOC, one can say that Management Information Systems enable business processes such as inputs, outputs, and decision-making. ENOC can lose customers of specific groups of products because of high competition. To fulfil all inputs and outputs, the organization applies Management Information Systems that presuppose comfort operation by the company and its employees. ENOC also can demonstrate its power through MIS that are specific tools for solving specic issues. The IT enables business processes by making them a strong side. Strengths of the implementation of Management Information Systems refer to the competitive advantage, lowering of costs, empowerment of employees to make better business decisions, as well as collection, storage, and analysis of data (Kascelan, 2011).
Management Information Systems benefit motivation, measurement, and evaluation of the company’s performance. There are such factors that influence performance: market share, profitability, product leadership, productivity, personnel development, public responsibility, balance between short-range and long-range objectives, and employee attitudes (Sullivan, 2004).
The first and most crucial change in ENOC relates to an increase of marketing sales. Management Information Systems have been misrepresented in the business world as they have been supposed to be only a tool for measuring the company’s performance. However, ENOC has applied MIS as a strategy for improving production of goods and services.
Management Information Systems open many opportunities for ENOC as it consists of online analytical processing and data mining. Online analytical processing is a flexible system. Data mining system can automatically determine hidden threats and issues, especially with financial operations. As a result, this can improve competitive corporate performance. Key performance indicators of ENOC include analysis of data, economy of costs, and avoidance of threats.
Advantages of Management Information Systems are that they give the possibility to report about multiple systems and to store and structure data. Management Information Systems allow collecting data from different internal and external sources. The most important thing is that data are available for reports and analysis. Management Information Systems empower employees to make better business decisions as they should not spend much time on collecting, storing, and analyzing data.These key performance indicators can be displayed through organizational effectiveness and quick access to data. Moreover, they can be seen through savings. MIS are useful and crucial because they provide savings of millions of dollars annually and guarantee higher revenues.
Without doubt, Management Information Systems can cause many problems. First of all, their implementation demands money and special training. Management Information Systems are sophisticated and complicated and demand IT knowledge and skills. Implementation of Management Information Systems demands time and efforts. Another issue is that ENOC deals with structured and unstructured data. Structured data are easy and more available for processing. As to the unstructured ones, they are difficult for processing and analyzing. Consequently, it is a limitation of Management Information Systems.
Poor companies can not afford using Management Information Systems as they are very expensive. One also needs additional costs for hiring consultants who will be knowledgeable in IT technologies. These are additional losses of money and the lack of money is the issue even for the oil company such as ENOC. For example, initial price of Business Intelligence systems for big companies can even reach one million dollars. Not every company can afford it. The research has showed that only 20% are implemented successfully and bring positive results out of 100% of Business Intelligence Projects.
Another limitation is that poor quality of source data disables their effective processing by Management Inormation Saystems. Lack of experience of employees in work with this system is also one of the obstacles. Some MIS demand interaction with the user while processing data. It means that the user should be competent in order to participate in this process of interaction with MIS. The company should have business analysts for defining data errors.
Our Benefits
At the present time, any oil organization should control increases and decreases of their sales. There are special automotive companies that control reporting on sales, but they are not as effective as Management Information Systems. ENOC should build its MIS in order to make functioning of the organization more successful. Keeping of increased sale data will help to create competitive pricing programs and marketing programs and will provide better profitability.
ENOC should constantly develop under influence of development of new technologies. It should increase its services and products in order to stay competitive and survive in the market. With the development of new technologies and high demands of customers, oil companies should move forward by adopting new methods and services for retaining their clients. Decline of profits makes ENOC find ways for winning the market. Implementation of Management Information Systems makes ENOC smarter and innovative. Moreover, the company should involve more IT specialists in the management process. Trainings on Management Information Systems is a must for ENOC as they increase the intellectual level of employees. It is evident that ENOC should not restrict itself to applying only Business Intelligence systems and the Balanced Management Scorecard. There is also the Management Learning System that will be efficient for employees.
Conclusion
In conclusion, one should say that ENOC is an innovative and modern oil company that relies upon Management Information Systems. Feautures of these technologies are a competitive advantage, innovation, modernization, availability, and quickness of use. The role of Management Information Systems is crucial for ENOC. Management Information Systems stimulate increase of profits and contain information about all products and services, their prices, market rates, as well as whether customers buy or ignore them. It defines the target market. MIS define possible products and services that may be in demand among customers. When the company loses its clients, MIS may define main reasons of this problem and ways of solving it. Without doubt, these ways are only predictions, but it is a straight way to real solutions.
Management Information Systems are a good opportunity for ENOC to move forward and define priorities for the future. Business Intelligence will be more efficient for collecting and processing all data of this oil organization as it consists of many offices and headquarters.
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