Answer to Question #184799 in Management for Victor Campbell

Question

Analyze how information systems support the activities of managers and management decision making. Discuss the three main reasons why investments in information technology do not always produce positive results

Answer 1

If companies are living organs, their nerves are information systems. They are the memory of society because they store information in an orderly manner. They are also harmful because they store this information in different parts of the organization. Of course, people still make up a large part of the conscious "living body’s", but the balance is slowly changing as IS becomes more involved in organizations. Managers need quick access to information so they can make strategic, marketing, financial as well as operational decisions. Businesses gather massive amounts of information such as sales data, accounting data, customer data, market research, production as well as, personnel records and inventory data. Management information systems collects data outside and within the organization. By generating a network that links a central database of distributors, retailers, as well as supply chain memberships, companies can collect production and sales data daily or else more often and make decisions grounded on the latest data.

IT investments alone cannot make organizations and superiors more efficient unless they include supporting values, structures and behaviours in the organization and other complementary methods that can adapt to new business processes, management behaviours, organizational culture, training, decentralization of power, and decentralized decision-making rights. these concepts do not guarantee a good result, e.g. the brand refused to change its old business model based on the distribution of corporate music stores instead of adopting a new online distribution model. As a result, companies do not sell on the Internet the history of the sale of legal music, but by a technology company called Apple Computer. Additional assets are the measures necessary to obtain the value of the main investment.