Introduction :

“MIS is the systematic study of the information system. An information system is set of components (Hardware, software, data, customers & procedures) that operate together to produce information which supports the operations and the management functions in an organizations.” Says Ahithuv and Newman in 1986 (Newman, 1986).

Defining MIS is a herculean mission. Studies over this term had carried out several times but no journals, societies and departments are not in alliance whether MIS is an appropriate term in the business environment. For an instance this report deals with Argos retailing chain in UK (Carey.J, 1991).

Argos intends to synchronize its organization and communication between top level management to the bottom level management and able to achieve their goal and mission very effectively through the implementation of the management information system (Carey.J, 1991).

Main body

History

Argos was founded in 1973 with 1000 staffs and first catalogue containing 4700 products (250 pages).From the beginning its self company utilized the scope of management information system in their three levels of management to establish advanced marketing strategies .Soon after the start , company developed exponentially and increased number of shops. In 1975 company covered almost 1.3 million customers ,and in 1984 implemented DTS-comart system (which is one of the advanced IT retailing system at that time).After that in 1993 company started using COBOL system in stores called AURA (Argos Unix Retail Application) computer system. In 2000 company launched ASIST supply chain website for suppliers and all together contributed to an annual sales of £18 million. In 2009 the annual sales of the company raised to£ 4.282 billion, with the backup of modern information system.

Company highlights

Delivering world class services to the customers with top level architecture, and executing advanced business strategies to reduce to operating costs.

Highly efficient stock management systems: Regulating the stock in daily basis, rather than monthly or weekly.

Replacement of traditional systems, for more effective multiple stock balance without compromising customer friendly approach.

Business strategies focused on the supplier co ordination and flexibility management.(oracle,n.d.)

Company views and values.

Corporate responsibility: Keeping the environment green and clean is the first factor company emphasis. Regulating the energy consumption, ethical business strategies and healthy competition with neighbors. All this factors enables company socially, environmentally and ethically responsible.

Customer friendly and caring approach: Easily accessible stores and services, internet shopping, customer care units, various information access facilities inside store for customers.

Recycling and social responsibility: Argos using papers and catalogues are 100% recyclable. Company has a number of local and central recycling points. Effective waste management system

Flow of information in MIS across various departments

MIS can be generally expressed as a collection of procedures like processing the information or data ,which may be some figures, invoice values, rates, items received or delivered ,money etc, And communicating this information to required users or managers. This information can be used for the further comparison, analysis, storage for the proper operation of the company.(Lucey,2005,p.4) Figure shows the flow of information in various management levels with the effective implementation of MIS. The heart of all these operations is a central server which is normally internet , through which the up and down flow of information take place. All operations are controlled and coordinated on the basis of accurate information gathered through MIS on the respective database system. This benefits top level, middle level and low level managers to enhance their managing power to increase the profitability without decrementing the quality of service.

From the above figure we can point out three basic levels of operation they are,

Store level management: Product out letting is done through Point Of Sales(POS) terminal.POS system contains all information about products, stock details, accessories etc. In Argos customers can check details of products like price, availability, stock status, etc by themselves using various another information delivering terminals. This makes the working of POS terminal more easy and flexible. Store level operations also include a manager controlling station with the backup of a storage level data base. Day today information about sales ,products ,feedbacks and stocks are stored and communicated with higher level of management for marketing and decision making purposes.

Inventory and warehouse management: This is the next level of management which uses the information from the store level management system and releases stocks according to the requirement in the stores. Warehouse managing section maintains the stock in such way that, they meet any immediate requirement of products. Inventory dada terminals takes the information of stock in and out .This information is communicated to the higher level of management for decision making. Some heavy goods are stored in warehouse instead of stores for the convenience and moved to the store as per the customer booking. For this processes continues information transfer is taking place between the first two levels of operation. Inventor management level includes a number of employees and an inventory control Manager. Manager takes the required decision to satisfy the needs of stores in specified area. A highly efficient transport system is also under the control of inventory control manager. In spite of the ware house to store transportation, home delivery of products is also under the responsibility of this transport system. Separate employees are posted ,to take care of internet and home delivery booking of products with respect to the information

available from the store level management. Here data base is used saving and manipulation of data.

Headquarter control and management: This is higher level of management where the strategic decision making is taking place. This include board of directors, CEO and higher level of managers. Top level of managers are diverted to different streams of specialization like ,HR managers, Inventory managers, Financial ,public relation and IT managers. All this governing and managing bodies together constitute the headquarter management level of the company. Headquarter server database is a large database which contains all information from all levels of management. Head office MIS has direct link between other two levels of management, for proper control and guidance. Managers in the headquarter level can access all information stored in head quarter server which is continually updated with lower level databases. This information is then analyzed and used for strategic decision making process. Bidirectional flow of information through MIS regulates the business with top to bottom approach using easier and fast IT communication technologies.

Basic MIS factors

MIS on the other side it is a dual information system consisting of both database and software which is helpful for manager in their decision making. The main four major important elements of MIS are actor, data, procedures and tools which in turn help the project to bring more effectiveness and efficiency in the management of the overall business processes. MIS works on the major elements as:

Actor: - Actor is one who operates or uses the Management information System for accessing the information from the whole system and use in proper decision making. This may be the board of directors, high level managers, various department managers, supervisors etc.

Data: - Data stored on the Management information system helps the managers to make appropriate decisions on the business processes. The data stored in the MIS server will be used by the managers or the persons who have the authority to take decisions in a company. They collect those data from various point of the business and after various processes those data are used to make proper decisions in the business processes

Procedures and Tools: - Procedures are the method in which the data is processed and analysed by using the various analytical tools in the business. Managers use these analytical tools to make proper decisions to bring effectiveness and efficiency in the business processes by collecting and processing the information collected from the MIS system and use it in the decision making process

Argos is a company having a wide range of products having different class of customers. They effectively use the wide spread of information technology in the world as they use telephonic orders and online shopping etc. Argos uses the technological advancement in the world as using the electronic POS (Point Of Sale) system improves the accuracy in their financial transitions. And the advanced barcode system helps to identify every single product by keeping the records of the products by scanning using the POS system

Implementation of MIS on various level of management in Argos for increasing the efficiency in managing business processes

Managers are those who take decisions to increase the efficiency in managing business process. These managers are divided in to three levels on the basis of their function

Top level / Administrative level In Argos the top level management consists of those with higher level of authority as CEO, Board of directors, and higher level managers who formulate various strategic decisions. They functions according to the information they collect from the MIS system they have implemented in their business processes. They does the major functions like executive coaching delegation and empowerment, change management and the most important function providing leadership. The top level managers act as the actor in the MIS system and they collects the data mostly related to the organisational goal and the whole business from the system through the various procedures and analysis by using various analytical tools and makes decisions like providing proper authority delegation among the various department managers and other management personals. The main important function of top level managers are change management as they manages their change in the teams or individuals or organisation from a current state to a desired future state, as various changes like strategic and technological changes are made by analysing the data provided by the management information system. The one of the major change can be the change in to the technologically advanced retail shops. They also use these data to provide proper directions to the various levels to attain organisational goals. Also these data helps in identifying the changes in the attitude of the personals towards the organisation and its functions.

Middle Level / Executory level

In Argos the middle level management consists of various branch managers and department managers who formulate various tactical decisions. These are very important decisions made in the management level as it have a risk factor in those decisions. In this level the various department managers and branch managers does various functions like problem solving, talent development, performance management, team building, etc. They use data from

the management information system as the various team records performance of the branch or department etc. and analyse it by using various analytical tools to make appropriate decisions on the basis of their authority delegated by the top level management. They makes decisions on the problems faced by the business in various levels, they provide proper talent

development decisions for who is in need etc. They also use the information on the stock management system assessing the danger level in stock and taking decisions to maintain the appropriate stock level.

Low level / Supervisory / Operative / First-line managers

According to R.C. Davis, “Supervisory management refers to those executives whose work has to be largely with personal oversight and direction of operative employees”. In other words, they are concerned with direction and controlling function of management.

In Argos the there are supervisory/operative management level which consists of supervisors, section officers, foreman etc. this is the direction and controlling function of the organisation they collect data from the MIS system implemented in their particular section to analysis the workers and their day to day activities. They also uses the quantity and quality of the products and the cost of the production etc. they collects various data and analysis the actual day to day functions and position of the department or branch and analyse it through various analytical tools to make proper decisions on the production quality and quantity, jobs assigned to the workers, the human resource requirement, maintenance and the proper functioning of the particular sections etc. they also uses the employees data to take motivational decisions. They gives proper directions to the workers to work to attain the organisational goals and they makes effective controlling of the actual performance to the predefined targeted goals. They are the authority to make the work done and make proper equipment and machinery decisions for making the work done in the most effective and efficient way.

HIERARCHY OF MIS IN ARGOS:

An integrated MIS includes three main tires in Argos management which includes

1. Top level management.

2. Middle level Management.

3. Low level management.

In top level management which consists of CEO, Chairman and other executive directors. The effective MIS integrates the communication between the other two levels of the management. Next to the top level management which come middle level management

which is the heart of the management function the middle level management team of Argos can be perfectly divided into some departments like:

1. Production manager.

2. Marketing manager.

3. Inventory manager.

4. Personal manager.

5. HR manager.

6. Accounting executives.

7. Financial manager.

8. Public Relations manager.

9. IT manager.

Between this management MIS acts as good network between them. Next to the Middle level management team which comes the low level management which consist of the departments in the supervisor levels which includes:

1. Production supervisor.

2. Marketing supervisor.

3. HR supervisor.

4. Financial supervisor.

5. IT supervisor.

The business analytical system especially MIS is useful in the collate of business data and on the presentation and production of the reports to be used for the effective decision making process in the managerial levels of an organization.

ETHICS OF MIS

Management information system is basically connected with the refining up of data to the useful information after all it is used to communicated with the various department in an

organizations for appropriate decision making in the management level. The given diagram gives clear cut information about the information system running between in Argos. The useful data can be collected with the use of the information technology comprising computers and telecommunication network. (BPC,2006).

In retailing chain like Argos the MIS is very useful since the main goal of the Argos is to deliver world class services and products to the customers with its developed Information Technology architecture. The MIS system has helped a lot for the managers in the different departments to communicate and take effective decisions. From the above figure information are divided into four mainly

1) Descriptive Information.2) Diagnostic Information.3) Predictive Information.4) Prescriptive information.

Descriptive information: Descriptive information points out “what is” which mainly focuses on towards the what is the condition of the business and it describes about the business at a specified point of time. Descriptive information are very important to the managers without any descriptive information many problems would not be identified. Descriptive information which includes the financial results, product marketing, inventory and stock control report which is highly in needed in the company like Argos retailing chain with this descriptive information the chief decision are made. In Management decision making process there are three types of decisions which are Strategic tactical and operational decisions. With the help of descriptive information strategic decisions are made.

The second type of information is called as diagnostic information it says “What went wrong”. The diagnostic information measures the disparity between “what is” and “what ought to be” the diagnostic information can be used to define the problem that develop in the business like Is the rate of earned on investment is too low or not? This type of information cannot be answered with the descriptive type of information alone. Once a problem is detected in the business, a manager may choose an appropriate steps or decision to deal with the problem without any negative after effects. An appropriate decision made from the diagnostic information can make managers strong enough to achieve the goals of Argos. The tactical decisions can be made effectively with the help of diagnostic information.

Predictive Information is the one defines the problem or avoid the problem in advance. Predictive information is needed by the managers to reduce the rate of present as well as future risk in Argos. Here in Argos Predictive information is much important mainly two tiers of the management especially in higher level of the management as well as the middle level management. This information is vital in formulating the business strategies in the company both for better present and future scenarios in the company and which are deeply related to the financial impacts in an organization. Predictive information takes many forms which includes what all are strategies which is needed to be changed in the next year. Here managers use various budgeting techniques, business models and other business analytical tools to evaluate expected changes in the business where as prescriptive is focusing towards the answering the “what should be done?” provisions of this information requires the utilization of predictive information as well.

In managerial decision making as we move up from the low level management to the top level management the value of information is increased and the volume of information is decreased thus as the one in the management level acquires the knowledge and wisdom the decision making process is refined.

Conclusion

From all the above discussion we can point out Argos as an excellent example for the companies become successful because of the efficient use of advanced Management Information system. Company have wide range of strategic functions, which uses modern information technology to coordinate their overall process to reach deep into the different classes of customers .According to Terry Duddy, Argos is very careful about the rapidly changing customer outlook, Peak seasonal period and offers which attracts customers to Argos(BBCnews,2007).This enabled company to raise sales to £ 6.023billion current year(BBCnews,2010).Performance of the company made a profit of 294 million, which exceeds the expectations of the company even though the figure is 11% down from last year

profit(UKwirednews,2010).As per the performance levels of past years Argos can be considered a high profile catalogue retailer company recognized for its brand name, value, quality and convenience.

Management information systems

 By Terence Lucey

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