Assignment 1 MIS

Our first assignment in MIS(Management Information System) we were asked to choose a local organization or any company and we must study there best practices about Information System and Information Technology. The local company that i chose is 1 of the big retailer industry, National Book Store.

National Bookstore is the largest bookstore chain in the Philippines with 92 branches in the country.[1] It was set to open its first overseas branch, in Hong Kong, in September 2007.

Luck is only a small part of National Book Store's success. Through the hard work and powerful leadership of Socorro Cancio-Ramos and the late Jose Ramos with their family, the company has evolved from its humble beginnings into the biggest and strongest bookstore chain in the Philippines.

Before I start to describe there best practices in IS/IT, I'll give some information about the company and just a brief history about this company.

The first National Book Store started as a stall shop in Escolta before the Japanese occupation selling supplies, GI novels, and textbooks. When war broke out, strict book censorship forced them to shift their trade to soap, candies, and slippers. They bought their merchandise from wholesalers and peddled them to smaller retailers.

Liberation came, but the whole Escolta area was burned to the ground. Having all their stocks reduced to ashes left the couple with nothing but determination and an undying drive to succeed. And their persistence paid off. They were able to rebuild a barong-barong in the corner of Soler and Avenida Rizal in time to catch the post-war business boom. They went back to business using their door as a counter for selling textbooks, notebooks, pad paper, and pencils. Business went very well because during that time, there were only a few stores that sold school supplies and books. National Book Store's opening was strategically timed to welcome the first postwar school year.

Information System (IS) refers to a system of people, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes. In a narrow sense, the term information system (or computer-based information system) refers to the specific application software that is used to store data records in a computer system and automates some of the information-processing activities of the organization.

National bookstore began practicing their IS/IT as for now, because of this practices, there company become very popular in every place here in Philippines. As they use technology for their means of selling some of there products, it became efficient on handling each of their succeeding projects. It will be more productive and may easy to convey clients.

National Book Store ONLINE
-a web application that manages activity information about every products and news for everything. The administrators are able to enter activity information (including contacts, new franchise stores, collective books and everything) and provide reports on the progress of there company throughout the year for their grants.

Network Management
-this is consider as the best practices of this company, this manages the company and there network as the system launches enhancements for there work. Another thing to consider is the High-end computers, sophisticated software, and other devices are being used to speed up everything which involves the online processes of the company.

As the company acquired Information System in there work spaces, it's totally visible in the company because as what I've research, the growing of National Book Store franchised stores speeds up to higher level. From a simple, not too big company to a productive and progressive one.

more about this topics in my blog...

http://neilreyniere.blogspot.com


Let's Do I.T. !!!

Managerial Roles by Henry Mintzberg

Managers must wear many different hats in formulating and implementing task activities related to their positions. In an attempt to understand the diversity of hats managers must wear, Henry Mintzberg examined managerial activities on a daily basis. His study enabled him to identify ten different but, coordinated sets of behavior, or roles, that managers assume. These ten roles can be separated into three general groupings: interpersonal roles, informational roles, and decisional roles.

The following are the 3 managerial roles by Henry Mintzberg:

INTERPERSONAL ROLES

Three of the manager's roles come into play when the manager must engage in interpersonal relationships. The three roles are:

• Figurehead
• Leader
• Liaison

The figurehead role is enacted when activity of a ceremonial nature is required within the organization. A baseball manager attending a minor league all-star game, the head chef of a prominent restaurant greeting customers at the door, and the president of a bank congratulating a new group of trainees are all examples of the figurehead role. While the figurehead role is routine, with little serious communication and no important decision making, its importance should not be overlooked.

The second interpersonal role, the leader role, involves the coordination and control of the work of the manager's subordinates. The leader role may be exercised in a direct or an indirect manner. Hiring, training, and motivating may all require direct contact with subordinates. However, establishing expectations regarding work quality, decision-making responsibility, or time commitments to the job are all outcomes of the leader role that are indirectly related to subordinates.

The third,the liaison role is enacted when managers make contact with other individuals, who may or may not reside in the organization, in order to complete the work performed by their departments or work units. An auto assembly plant supervisor may telephone a tire supplier to determine the amount of inventory available for next week; a prosecuting attorney may meet with the presiding judge and defense attorney to discuss the use of motions and evidence in a libel trial

INFORMATIONAL ROLES

Monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson are the three informational roles that a manager may assume. These informational roles are created as a result of enacting the set of interpersonal roles already described. A network of interpersonal contacts with both subordinates and individuals outside the work unit serves to establish the manager as an informational nerve center of the unit, responsible for gathering, receiving, and transmitting information that concerns members of the work unit.

Occasionally, a manager must assume the spokesperson role by speaking on behalf of the work unit to people inside or outside the organization. This might involve lobbying for critical resources or appealing to individuals who have influence on activities that affect the work unit. A top manager asking the board of directors to keep the work unit together during a reorganization period or a corporate president speaking to a college audience on the role the company plays in education would both constitute engaging in the spokesperson role.

DECISIONAL ROLES

Both interpersonal and informational roles are really preludes to what are often considered to be a manager's most important set of roles: the decisional roles of entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.

The entrepreneur role comes into action when the manager seeks to improve the work unit. This can be accomplished by adapting new techniques to fit a particular situation or modifying old techniques to improve individual or group activity. Managers usually learn of new or innovative methods through information gathered in the monitor role. As a result, a supervisor purchases a new kiln which will shorten the drying process for ceramic tiles; a director of a youth club trains staff in the use of personal computers to increase file access; or a president establishes a new pension plan to improve employee morale.

Effectively managing an organization is a demanding task. Managers not only must develop skills related to the functional areas of management but also must learn how to integrate these activities. What makes this process demanding is that events and activities external and internal to an organization can radically change the techniques and methods managers must use in order to arrive at successful outcomes. Managers cannot afford to be limited in their view of management, nor can they simply rely on how things were done in the past.

Even the most seasoned and successful managers are prone to mistakes. However, a more complete knowledge of the managerial process can reduce the chances of mistakes that will have dire consequences for an organization. Such knowledge may help managers to better plan, organize and staff, direct, and control organization activities within the context of their organization.

source: http://www.en.articlesgratuits.com/managerial-roles-id1587.php

•The ChaosChoir•

LEADERSHIP Roles:

1. Chief Architect. The chief architect designs future possibilities for the business. The primary work of the chief architect is to design and evolve the IT infastructure so that it will expand the range of future possibilities for the business, not define specific business outcomes. The infastructure should provide not just today's technical service, such as networking databases and desktop operating systems, but an increasing range of business-level services, such as workflow, portfolio management, scheduling, and specific business components or objects.

2. Change leader. The change leader ochestrates resources or archieve optimal implementation of the future. The essential role of the change leader is to orchestrate all those resources that will be needed to execute the change program. This includes providing new IT tools , but it also involves putting in the place teams of people who can redesign roles, jobs, and workflow, who can change beliefs about the company and the work people do, and who understand human nature and can develop incentive systems to coax people into different behaviors.

3. Product developer. The product developer helps define the company's place in the emerging digital economy. For example, a product developer might recognize the potential for performing key business processes (perhaps order fulfillment, purchasing or delivering customer support) over electronic linkages such as the internet . The product developer must "sell" the idea to a business partner , and together they can set up and evaluate business experiments, which are initially operated out of IS. Whether the new methods are adopted or not, the company will learn from the experiments and so move closer to commercial success in emerging digital markets.

4. Technology provocateur. The technology provocateur embeds IT into the business strategy. The technology provocateur works with senior business executives to bring IT and realities of the IT marketplace to bear on the formation of strategy for the business.The technology provocateur is a senior business executive who understands both the business and IT at a deep enough level to integrate the two perspectives in discussions about the future course of the business. Technology provocateurs have a wealth of experience in IS disciplines, so they understand at a fundamental level the capabilities of IT and how IT impacts the business.

5. Coach. The coach teaches people to acquire the skillsets they will need for the future. Coaches have basic responsibilities: teaching people how to learn, so that they can become self-sufficient, and providing team leaders with staff able to do the IT-related work of business. A mechanism that assists both is the center of excellence - a small group of people with a particular competence or skill, with a coach responsible for their growth and development. Coaches are solid practitioners of the competence that they will be coaching, but need not to be the best at it in the company.

6. Chief operating strategist. The chief operating strategist invents the future with senior management. The chief operating strategist is the top IS executive who is focused on the future agenda of the IS organization. The strategist has parallel responsibilities related to helping the business design the future, and then delivering it. The most important, and least understood, parts of the role have to do with the interpretation of new technologies and the IT marketplace, and the bringing of this understanding into the development of he digital business strategy for the organization.

•The ChaosChoir•

According to the Computer Science Corporation (CSC) here are the Information System

Reflections.. My Learnings...

June 18, 2009, Thursday was the first meeting of our subject in Management Information System (MIS) with our facilitator MR. Randy S. Gamboa. The first meeting started with a prayer and ends with a prayer, it stands that our facilitator is faithfull from top to buttom. Every students knew him as a simple remarkable person because he's intelligent and known in PSITE as the president. Sir Randy introduced first himself and also the new faces from USEP Tagum. He asked every new student to stand and state who they are,they also sang some song for some ice-breaker. After which, formal class started, everyone was very attentive listening to what sir Randy is delivering. The class haven't justify the question of sir Randy so he gave us this assignment which is to post in our own blog site and also in his site. The question goes like this, "Is the description MIS (Management Information System) approriate on it?Justify your answer.

This blog reflection is my own understanding towards the course description, if it is wrong or right, i think you will learn a little bit in this simple entry i made.

Before I begin my reflections on this subject, I will give u first the meaning of every words compromising MIS. First, Management, basing in DMT(Development Management Thought) management is the process of getting activities completed efficiently and effectively with and through other people. The 4 key activities under management are planning,organizing,directing and controlling. Second, Information, as a concept has a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. Third, System, is a set of interacting or interdependent entities, real or abstract, forming an integrated whole. Lastly, Information System, it refers to a system of people, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization and it includes the organization manual and automated proceses.

For my learnings and reflections about the topic, Management Information System is therefore a structured and planned system of imparting, retrieving, storing and processing the data in the form of information vital to carry out the functions of management. In a way that the enhancement projection or simply the development of management will assist and execute the general workforce of the process such that it will relate to the enhancement of information. We can see here how the two (Management and Information System) words interact with each other, they seem to be not a subject to be argued because we knew that each other interact well based on the given facts above.

General reflection about the topic, Management Information System is covered with the applications of the people and there procedural thoughts which is transformed into Information System. It was justify by some facts about MIS and come with an appropriate details. MIS deals with planning for information technology and management to help every users in performing some works related to management.

This are my learnings and reflections joined together regarding our subject MIS and i think i gave all my best words here for my assignment.

•THE CHAOSCHOIR•

But it's better if you do.. ^_^

Now I'm of consenting age to be forgetting you in a cabaret
Somewhere downtown where a burlesque queen may even ask my name
As she sheds her skin on stage
I'm seated and sweating to a dance song on the club's P.A.
The strip joint veteran sits two away
Smirking between dignified sips of his dignified peach and lime daiquiri

And isn't this exactly where you'd like me
I'm exactly where you'd like me, you know
Praying for love in a lap dance and paying in naivety
Oh, and isn't this exactly where you'd like me
I'm exactly where you'd like me, you know
Praying for love in a lap dance and paying in naivety

Oh, but I'm afraid that I
Well, I may of faked it
And I wouldn't be caught dead in this place

Well, I'm afraid that I
Well, that's right, well, I may have faked it
And I wouldn't be caught dead in this place

And isn't this exactly where you'd like me
I'm exactly where you'd like me, you know
Praying for love in a lap dance and paying in naivety
Oh, and isn't this exactly where you'd like me
I'm exactly where you'd like me, you know
Praying for love in a lap dance and paying in naivety

Well, I'm afraid that I
Well, I may of faked it
And I wouldn't be caught dead in this place

Well, I'm afraid that I
Well, that's right, well I may have faked it
And I wouldn't be caught dead in this place

And isn't this exactly where you'd like me
I'm exactly where you'd like me, you know
Praying for love in a lap dance and paying in naivety
Oh, and isn't this exactly where you'd like me
I'm exactly where you'd like me, you know
Praying for love in a lap dance and paying in naivety

Praying for love and paying in naivety
Praying for love and paying in naivety, oh