Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation needs lot of attention and dedication from all the concerned. The top management role is generally limited to the approval of the ERP package and taking care of ERP budgets. The top management identifies a person as ‘Champion’ to take the decisions as required. Once the company decides to go for a specific ERP, all the employees who are likely to be affected shall be taken into confidence and each of the end user shall be provided with ERP tutorial for their function. While there are more than one standard ERP tutorial, it may be better for the consulting company or the company’s IT department to device their own tutorial. While ERP application is being customized, the concerned are consulted and their inputs are taken. Once the customization is done, the system integration and testing are done. At this point of time the users are Continue reading
Business Information Systems
Introduction to Management Information Systems (MIS)
A management information system (MIS) can be defined as a system that: Provides information to support managerial functions like planning, organizing, directing, controlling. Collects information in a systematic and a routine manner which is in accordance with a well defined set of rules. Includes files, hardware, software and operations research models of processing, storing, retrieving and transmitting information to the users. A management information system (MIS) is a subset of the overall internal controls of a business covering the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures by management accountants to solving business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy. Management information systems are distinct from regular information systems in that they are used to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization. Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods tied to the automation or support Continue reading
Common Access Card (CAC) Deployment
The Common Access Card or CAC is a smart card designed to be used as an ID card that enables physical access to buildings and controlled space like server rooms and for access to computer systems and networks. Department of Defense (DoD) deployed this system to meet its high security requirements for authentication of personnel entering in the Department’s buildings, controlled areas and computer networks. Common Access Card is a smart card that has public key infrastructure (PKI) features to provide secure system functionalities such as authentication, data integrity, confidentiality and non-repudiation. CAC stores the private key of the client certificates, used with PKI cryptography program, in the card and it is hard to extract this key from the card. Common Access Card relies on public key systems and certificates which are way more secure than the current common username and password based identity management systems. An important consideration with Continue reading
Comparison Between Proprietary Software and Open Source Software
Proprietary software can be defined as closed software that is distributed under a license agreement that limits any modifications to the software. Its just opposite to the concept of Open source software. Open source software can be defined as software that is distributed freely under a license agreement with no limitations on changes made to the source code. Many proprietary corporations make software freely available to users. For example, Adobe provides users with the Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is an application that users to view documents that have been saved in the portable document format (PDF). The PDF format is developed by Adobe and has become a standard in saving files as electronic documents. ‘Standardization’ and ‘compatibility’ are the two main drivers for the success of proprietary software. Any user that opens a PDF formatted document with Adobe Acrobat Reader is confident that the document will be Continue reading
File Organization Techniques
The basic technology of the data organization is based on a hierarchy. Data must be approached on an organized basis, if it is to be useful, in data processing, the hierarchy of data is described below:- A character is any simple number, alphabet or special symbol. A data record consists of a group of related data fields(e. g. Employee’s sequential record, customer record, etc.) A data field is an area that can hold one organization more characters that, together represents a specific data element(e. g. The name field, the quantity filed) A data file is a compilation of related data records maintained in some prearranged order. A database usually consists of several related organization integrated data files. A file consists of a number of records. Each record is made up of a number of fields and each field consists of a number of characters. In order to produce useful information Continue reading
Case Study on Information Systems: Premier Automotive Services Limited
The Premier Automotive Services Limited (PAS) provides services to various companies in Pune for maintaining the transport fleet run by the companies, for their use. Beside this, it runs petrol pumps and spare parts shop too. The vehicle maintained by the Premier Automotive Services are buses , trucks, and jeeps. The total strength of the Premier Automotive Services is around 300 vehicles. The services charged are of two types- fixed monthly for the routine maintenance and variable maintenance for other services like breakdown repairs, replacements, petrol or diesel consumed, etc. The company seeking the services from the PAS are satisfied if the vehicles are kept in good condition and down time is 2% of 25 days in a month. The Premier Automotive Services finds difficulty in maintaining this service level even though a large staff and sufficient inventory of spare parts are available. The probability of the company is going Continue reading